A blast of frigid Arctic air brought unusually cold temperatures to the northeastern U.S. this week.
In western New York, a fountain in Letchworth State Park has been frozen into a mountain of solid ice. It now resembles an "ice volcano" standing over 5 stories tall, with a stream of water still spurting out. While the fountain often freezes in the winter months, the ice mountain rarely reaches such a height.
The eastern U.S. is currently gripped by the most unusually cold air of any region on Earth, based on computer model data showing global temperature departures from average, with temperatures between 25 and 45 degrees below average or more.