Extreme Temperatures
According to Environment Canada, the Great Lakes haven't had this much ice so early in the season since the late 1980s. reat Lakes ice can be a bad thing, especially for shipping: a week before Christmas, a freighter carrying 17,000 tons of coal got stuck on thick ice on Muskegon Lake. This meant Consumers Energy had to cancel its last two coal shipments of the winter.
On the plus side, ice has the benefit of raising water levels in the Great Lakes. Alan Steinman of the Annis Water Resources Institute explains, "When you have more ice formation, you have less direct contact with the atmosphere, less opportunity for evaporation and that keeps the water levels up."
For the last 20 years with lower ice coverage, more water had evaporated, contributing to the low water levels seen last year. "We were setting records for the lowest water level in recorded history," explains Steinman. Another benefit to more ice coverage and less evaporation is less cloud cover and less lake effect snow. In other words, you will see the sun more.

A sea turtle comes up for a gulp of air while recovering with 61 others at Gulf World Marine Park on Thursday. “We were expecting 100 to 300 turtles and are preparing for more,” said Secret Holmes-Douglas, director of animal care. The turtles will be tagged and released into a warmer area of the gulf
Officials say the turtles were found stranded in shallow bay waters due to frigid temperatures over the past few days.
The News Herald of Panama City (http://bit.ly/1cU4ZVK ) reports the turtles went into a hypothermic state and became very weak because of the cold weather. Many now have developed a secondary illness.
Officials from Gulf World, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the Gulf Island National Seashore and University of Florida volunteers have found the turtles and brought them to the marine center for rehabilitation.
Gulf World officials say the turtles are in intensive care. Their body temperatures will be slowly warmed and they'll receive any necessary medicine.
Source: AP

Antarctica: The extent of sea ice (white) reached a record on 22 September, 2013. The yellow line shows the median of 1981 to 2000. Ice shelf is shown in gray.
The absurd misadventures of University of New South Wales climate professor Chris Turney is but the latest example. He and 51 co-believers set out on the (diesel-powered) Russian charter ship Akademik Shokalskiy to prove manmade global warming is destroying the East Antarctic ice sheet. Perhaps they'd been reading Dr. Turney's website, which claims "an increasing body of evidence" shows "melting and collapse" across the area. (It is, after all, summer in Antarctica, albeit a rather cold, icy one thus far.)
Instead of finding open water, they wound up trapped in record volumes of unforgiving ice, from Christmas Eve until January 2 - ensnared by Mother Nature's sense of humor and their own hubris. The 52 climate tourists were finally rescued by a helicopter sent from Chinese icebreaker Xue Long, which itself became locked in the ice. The misadventurers were transferred to Australian icebreaker Aurora Australis, but the Shokalskiy remains entombed, awaiting the arrival of US Coast Guard icebreaker Polar Star. (Meanwhile, Tourney hopes to get more grants to study manmade global warming, to help him make more money from his Carbonscape company, which makes "green" products from CO2 recovered from the atmosphere.)

In this photo provided China's official Xinhnua News Agency, passengers from the trapped Russian vessel MV Akademik Shokalskiy, seen at right, prepare to board the Chinese helicopter Xueying 12 in the Antarctic Thursday, Jan. 2, 2014.
Chris Turney, a professor at the University of New South Wales, organized this Antarctic excursion to "investigate the impact of changing climate." The group set sail, but never got close to the South Pole. Two weeks into what was supposed to be a five-week journey, the ship entered a thick patch of ice that didn't just show up overnight. "The thick chaotic surface we see around the Shokalskiy," Mr. Turney explained on his blog, "is consistent with the idea that this ice is several years old and is considerably more difficult to break through by icebreaker than single-year ice." Large Chinese and French icebreakers gave up early rescue attempts when they were unable to get within several miles of the frozen boat.
"The virus likes cold, wet and cloudy days," said Rodney Baker, a swine veterinarian at Iowa State University at Ames, Iowa, the top pork producing state in the United States.
At this time of year the virus gets frozen on clothes and shoes, making it easy to track around and spread, Baker added.
Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv), which causes diarrhea, vomiting and severe dehydration in hogs, has spread quickly across the U.S. hog belt since its discovery in the United States in April 2013.
California and Wyoming are the latest states to report confirmed cases of the deadly pig virus, bringing the number of states affected to 22, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Thursday.
The number of new cases increased by 134 for the week of December 29, bringing total reported cases to 2,084, according to the USDA's National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN)
The polar vortex which has gripped North America in sub-zero temperatures has brought with it a natural phenomenon on the shores of Lake Michigan.
Huge, basketball-sized balls of ice have been washing up by the lakeside town of Glen Arbor in Michigan.
Meteorologist Joe Charlevoix explains that they are formed when "the water temperature on the Lake Michigan is just a little bit below freezing, so you get a small piece of ice that forms in the water and as waves move back and forth it adds additional water and freezes in layers.
"It gets bigger and bigger, and eventually you get big balls of ice, that are pushed to the shore by the wind."
Locals call them "ice balls" or "ice boulders" and they are a regular feature of Winter in the Great Lakes.

A wrecked semi truck sits in a ditch in Illinois as sub-zero temperatures hit driving conditions.
- Montana recording a record-making wind chill of -52C (-61F)
- Live blog: life-threatening cold hits North America
Millions of Americans from Montana down to as far south as Alabama are being warned that their lives are at risk if they venture out for any length of time into brutally cold conditions that are driving temperatures to their lowest in 20 years.
Severe weather warnings from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for Minnesota and Wisconsin said that wind chills caused by gusts of up to 30 mph were causing temperatures to plummet to between -37C (-35F) and -46C (-50F). "Exposed flesh will freeze and cause frost bite in only five minutes," the warning observed, adding that such dangerous conditions were likely to last until at least Tuesday afternoon.
Twenty six states continue to be under federal warnings for severe wind chills as bitterly cold air is swept down from the Arctic, with Montana recording a wind chill of -52C (-61F). The severe weather has already caused havoc in the Northern Plains and is expected to reach the north-east on Tuesday, extending disruption to airports and travellers. More than 3,000 flights were cancelled on Monday and Chicago's O'Hare International airport has been particularly badly affected.

Ice builds up along Lake Michigan at North Avenue Beach as temperatures dipped well below zero on Jan. 6, 2014 in Chicago, Illinois.
In his executive order on climate change, Obama warned that too much rain - and not enough rain - also dictated that executive action against climate fluctuations:
"The impacts of climate change -- including an increase in prolonged periods of excessively high temperatures, more heavy downpours, an increase in wildfires, more severe droughts, permafrost thawing, ocean acidification, and sea-level rise -- are already affecting communities, natural resources, ecosystems, economies, and public health across the Nation. These impacts are often most significant for communities that already face economic or health-related challenges, and for species and habitats that are already facing other pressures."

Weather Channel producer Shawn Reynolds tweeted this incredible photo taken by pilot Hank Cain of a tundra-like Chicago, from above.
Thanks for the memories, polar vortex.