The word ‘cold’ doesn’t begin to describe it. We got about three inches of snow yesterday morning then the temperature plummeted. As I write this post at midday on Friday it’s warmed up to all of 15 degrees here in southeastern Pennsylvania, with a wind chill of 5 (-9 and -15 in Celsius).

This is the view from the window of my home office. The lacy ice patterns are quite lovely — from this side of the glass.

The local school was closed yesterday and initially planned to open two hours late this morning; but, at 6:30am we got the alert phone call (and text and email) saying that with the extreme cold and icy roads, school is closed again today. Needless to say, the teenager has yet to emerge from under the covers.

Earlier this week I learned a new weather term: ‘bomb cyclone’ (not as spectacular as it sounds). When a low-pressure rotating storm system, or cyclone, experiences a fast and dramatic drop in pressure, it’s known as ‘bombogenesis’ or ‘bomb cyclone.’ One of those brought the big storm that churned up the coast yesterday and froze everything along the eastern seaboard.

It’s all relative, of course. In Chicago, where we used to live, it’s currently 8 degrees with a wind chill below zero. The only time I remember the Chicago schools closing for severe weather was when the wind chill was below -20, too cold even for hardy midwestern kids to be waiting around for the school bus.

Meanwhile, Florida has been hit with unusually-chilly weather, with temperatures around 40 degrees overnight. There’s a corner of the internet where people are debating what to do about the frozen green iguanas dropping from the trees. I kid you not. Some people are saying “move them into the sunshine!” while others point out that these are wild critters and will bite you if you wake them up. And, others point out that iguanas are not native to Florida, so you should save the ecosystem by letting them freeze; or, take them home to keep as pets. Which is how green iguanas became such pests in parts of Florida to begin with (who knew).

This picture, picked up by a lot of the news sites, sums up Florida this morning.