The Icy Temps Cometh

Weather cold enough to drive a presidential inauguration inside is far from the exclusive realm of Washington, DC. As the Washington Post reports, nearly half the population of these United States are bundling up in their finest six layers of whatever they can lay hands on, with 150 million of us under some sort of cold weather alert. A look around:

• Arctic blast: On Monday, a swath from the Rockies to the northern Plains is in for mind- and body-numbingly frigid temps hanging out between minus 30 degrees and minus 55 degrees, reports the AP. "This poses a life-threatening risk of hypothermia and frostbite to exposed skin," said the Weather Prediction Center.

• More lowest of the low: The Post rounds up a sample of some of the worst forecasts out there, with Colorado's San Juan Mountains coming in at minus 46, and Minneapolis at 17 below zero. Meanwhile, traditionally balmy Gulf Coast locales will see snow and ice, with Houston hitting 20 degrees and New Orleans 24 degrees.
• The South will freeze again: About 30 million people from Texas to northern Florida and north into the Carolinas are staring down snow, sleet, and freezing rain starting Monday.
• About that inauguration: As NPR reports, the high temperature in DC on Monday is set to be a brisk 23 degrees, which was cold enough for President-elect Trump to opt to be sworn in indoors. It could get as cold as 10 degrees, making it the coldest inaugural since 7-degree weather sent Ronald Reagan inside for his second swearing-in.

(More cold weather stories.)