Since Mt. Vernon High School started its second semester, Indiana has been battered relentlessly by freezing temperatures and inches of snow and ice. However, these low temperatures are not exclusive to the Midwest. In fact, according to the Washington Post, “January has already been colder than average in most states east of the Rocky Mountains for the first time in two years – and now, more frigid air is coming.”
Some have speculated that this recent trend of colder-than-average temperatures is caused by the polar vortex, “a large area of low pressure and cold air surrounding both of the Earth’s poles,” expanding. Polar vortexes have always existed, but their expansion fluctuates every year.
CBS News states that, in the East, “Temperatures will be 25-30 degrees below average for this time of year.” This freeze in the eastern half of the United States starkly contrasts California’s rampant wildfires.
Indeed, even the southern United States is feeling the effects of lower-than-average temperatures. States that normally do not see snow, such as Georgia, Arkansas, Louisiana, South Carolina and even Florida received a heavy snowfall at the beginning of January. In the Midwest, Indiana has seen “the largest snowstorm to hit the state since February of 2021.” This same snowstorm, according to Fox 59, “spanned a half-dozen states” and was “responsible for a snow cover of 42% across the nation.”
This recent pattern of cold weather is not expected to leave any time soon. So far, though, January 2025 has ranked as the “18th coldest on record with an average temperature of 36.6 degrees.” The coldest January temperatures on record were in 1970 and 1977, with an average temperature of 28 degrees.
