Watch this incredible shot of steam rising off Lake Michigan in Chicago's cold

If you haven't heard, it's cold in Chicago. And Minnesota. And the entire Midwest.

The so-called polar vortex swept toward the Great Lakes on Tuesday, bringing unprecedented cold to the Windy City and beyond. The lowest recorded temperature in the Lower 48 came from Park Rapids, Minnesota, which racked up a minus 42 degree reading this morning with a wind chill of minus 65. That was definitely lower than summertime temperatures Antarctica is experiencing right now, but even Chicago and Minneapolis saw measurements colder than the northern edge of Alaska, per The Washington Post.

Meteorologists talked up the cold for days, emphasizing how Chicago's Wednesday morning low of 50 below zero with wind chill could induce hypothermia in minutes. Government buildings and schools shut down in anticipation of the storm and officials warned people to stay inside. Still, at least six weather-related deaths have been reported, with two people found frozen to death in Detroit and another in Chicago.

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The extreme cold isn't as visually dramatic as the snowstorms hitting the eastern edge of the Great Lakes. Still, it provided this scene of Lake Michigan releasing steam into the minus 15 degree air.

What's known as "steam fog" happens when "bitterly cold air mixes with a shallow layer of saturated milder air just above the lake surface," the National Weather Service Explains. The mixed air cools "beyond its dew point so that it can hold less water vapor, with the excess water vapor rapidly condensing as the steam fog," per the NWS. For some extra drama, watch the footage live at ABC7 Chicago.