President Donald Trump is mocking the science of climate change as Arctic air is set to blast the Midwest with record low temperatures this week.
Like a scene from The Day After Tomorrow, temperatures in Chicago, for example, are expected to plunge to -24 degrees. Minnesota could see wind chills dropping to -65. For comparison, the average surface temperature on Mars is -81. Put another way, it will be cold enough to freeze mercury.
So how did the President respond? With a painfully on-brand tweet:
"In the beautiful Midwest, windchill temperatures are reaching minus 60 degrees, the coldest ever recorded.," Trump tweeted on Monday. "In coming days, expected to get even colder. People can’t last outside even for minutes. What the hell is going on with Global Waming [sic]? Please come back fast, we need you!"
Not only did the president misspell 'warming,' he is failing to grasp the very basics of how rising global temperatures are disrupting the climate and causing extreme weather or even that weather and climate are two different things.
According to scientists, climate change's warming of the North Pole is splitting the normal flow of the polar vortex, allowing frigid air to drift across the North American continent.
In December, polar atmospheric temperatures rose 125 degrees, allowing swaths of cold air to wander away from the region. As the pole continues to heat up, the polar vortex will become a more frequent event in the United States, scientists say.
"Where the polar vortex goes, so goes the cold air," said Judah Cohen of the Atmospheric Environmental Research in Boston, adding that this week's cold snap would drag on for weeks.
"The impacts from this split, we have a ways to go. It's not the end of the movie yet," Cohen said. "I think at a minimum, we're looking at mid-February, possibly through mid-March."
Twitter did its thing and inundated Trump's feed with facts about climate change.
The level of cold forecast is deadly to many creatures that walk or fly, including humans.
Trump's self-proclaimed "great instinct for science" is facing ruthlessly mockery.
And rightly so.
While more data is needed to understand the connection between rising global temperatures and the polar vortex, other parts of the globe are sweltering in record heat.
In the last week, temperatures in Australia have soared above 118 degrees.
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