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As polar vortex rolls in, Twitter rolls out Star Wars Hoth memes

This life-threatening cold is serious business, but social media is trying to chill out.

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Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
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Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
CNET freelancer Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
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2 min read

It's going to be capital-C Cold in a large part of the country today. 

How cold? It's "blow soap bubbles and watch them freeze" cold. It's "throw hot water into the air and see it turn to steam" cold. It's so cold in Minnesota that the newspaper I used to work for, the Minneapolis-based Star Tribune, has a headline on its website asking, Can we catch Siberia?

The cold is serious business. "Some 100 million people will experience temperatures near or below zero," CNET sister site CBS News warns. The cold is so extreme that exposed skin can suffer frostbite in five minutes or less, CBS notes. 

Blame something called the polar vortex. CBS News describes it as a whirling mass of cold air that "usually stays closer to the poles, but sometimes breaks apart, sending chunks of Arctic air southward into the US during winter."  This week, the cold air is coming all at once, CBS meteorologist Jeff Berardelli writes.

You can't beat the cold, but you can survive it. Stay inside, if you can. Bundle up in layers, if you can't. Keep your gas tank full, pack a car emergency kit and make hot soup. And have a sense of humor about it, as these Twitter users did. 

First off, there are many, many Star Wars jokes, thanks to the ice planet Hoth. "I'd like to go out for lunch, but not sure my Tauntaun will reach the first marker," Eric J. Klinker wrote. 

But the snark was mostly focused on our own planet.

And there's nothing cold-weather citizens like more than dissing their warm-climate "friends" who keep posting photos of the temperature in Florida or other southern states right now. "Thoughts and prayers for Florida," one wrote. 

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