It's cold. Yeah, that's an understatement. We are officially colder today (and many other days) than the North Pole. Our temperatures have plummeted and we are in one heck of a cold snap here in Minnesota.

Brutal Minnesota Cold Snap

Recently, the National Weather Service has changed their cold weather warnings from wind chill advisories to now using "Extreme Cold Warnings." We have actual temperatures in the -20 range across Northern Minnesota, and wind chill values at -30 to -40F.

I stumbled on something interesting today on one of my favorite weather services. Weather Underground has a story about how -40 is the magic number when it comes to cold weather. What do they mean?

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Why Is -40 A Magical Number?

So here's a fun fact. -40 Fahrenheit is the same as -40 Celsius. No conversions are needed! That's pretty neat, huh?

Related: Never Used Before 'Extreme Cold Warning' In Effect In Minnesota

It's the only temperature that matches both Fahrenheit and Celsius. How do you figure out the conversion for Fahrenheit? You take the temperature in celsius, multiply in by 1.8, and then add 32.

So here's the math for -40. -40 X 1.8 = -72. -72 + 32 = -40

Pretty cool, huh? Actually, really frigid is more like it. I'm not sure what you can do with this information. Maybe you can use it as an icebreaker. No pun intended.

LOOK: The most extreme temperatures in the history of every state

Stacker consulted 2021 data from the NOAA's State Climate Extremes Committee (SCEC) to illustrate the hottest and coldest temperatures ever recorded in each state. Each slide also reveals the all-time highest 24-hour precipitation record and all-time highest 24-hour snowfall.

Keep reading to find out individual state records in alphabetical order.

Gallery Credit: Anuradha Varanasi

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