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The Midwest Was Colder Than Mars Today

That's pretty cold.

If you know anyone in the midwest, Canada, or parts of the east coast currently blasted with cold by the polar vortex, the fact that it was cold today is not news. But it turns out people aren't just being wimps: it was literally colder in part of the US and Canada today than it was on Mars, according to data from the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station on NASA's Curiosity rover:

Today's forecast high temps across much of Canada and the upper midwest are colder than the last reported high from Mars by Mars WeatherDecember 15, 2016

Of course, there are some caveats: this is only true if you compare the high temperatures in the midwest to the high temperatures on the Red Planet, and temperatures on Mars will dip much lower than the lows here on Earth to -103 F. It also does not mean, as some science deniers love to claim, that climate change doesn't exist: even with very cold winters, or even the occasional record low temperature, global temperatures still put 2016 on track to be the hottest year on record. But I wouldn't blame you if that fact was harder to remember today, when it was colder in some parts of the country than on the surface of a planet an extra 48 million miles away from the sun. Hope you're somewhere warm!