Much of the eastern U.S. is about to plunge into the coldest wave of Arctic air we've seen this winter, and for many, it could feature more sustained cold temperatures than we saw during the Great Polar Vortex Panic of 2014. If that isn't bad enough, the east could see a couple of disruptive winter storms next week.

Every winter, one of the coolest trends to circulate around the web is courtesy of unfortunate, bored souls stuck in the northern tundra with nothing better to do than throw cups of boiling water into the air. Once the water leaves the cup, it immediately turns into "snow." Let's take a look at how and why that happens.

After more than a week of warning, a frigid Arctic airmass is finally sweeping across the eastern half of the United States. Tonight and tomorrow, dangerously cold temperatures will encase the country from the Plains to the Atlantic and down to the Gulf of Mexico. This will probably—hopefully—be the coldest air we'll see this winter.

The coldest air of the winter is draining into the United States, and holy crap it's cold. Temperatures in much of the north are struggling to climb into the single digits today, while Boston and the NYC suburbs will flirt with lows near zero on Thursday morning. Here's what you need to know to survive the deep freeze.