"Last winter may have been mild, but now, temperatures are plunging in the Midwest – some 20 to 30 degrees below normal. The arctic blast, which is moving through the Ohio Valley into the Northeast, coincides with a historic increase in home heating costs this winter, particularly in New England. The deep freeze is expected to last into the weekend."

"'The cold air started moving into Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Great Lakes area over the weekend and was firmly entrenched in those areas before moving into Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York,' says Jim Keeney, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service."

Mark Guarino reports for the Christian Science Monitor January 22, 2013. [2]