The Midwest is freezing. Australia is burning. This map shows just how dramatic that is.
The U.S. has been hit by a polar vortex. Australia is experiencing the polar opposite.
The Midwest is currently pulling out of a deadly cold week, where Chicago dropped to a low of 23 degrees below zero and Minnesota saw 77 degrees below zero with wind chill. Meanwhile, southern Australia has reached a record-breaking 121 degrees Fahrenheit, and things are only expected to get worse. That all makes for an incredibly dramatic contrast on the Dark Sky weather app, as posted by astrophysicist Grant Tremblay.
At least 21 deaths have been reported due to the cold weather, which can induce hypothermia and frostbite in minutes, per HuffPost. Temperatures largely broke their subzero streak Friday, and are expected to spike into the 40s over the weekend in Chicago.
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Yet in Australia, the government started Friday with a warning that Melbourne "could see its hottest day in ten years." Months of excruciating heat has killed horses and millions of fish, and is estimated to have wiped out a third of the continent's bats. Things aren't expected to cool until Monday, and no human deaths have been reported yet.
And yes, this extreme weather is likely stemming from human-made climate change.
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