Decembrrr! And we thought November was cold.

But we humans do not lack company this winter season, both friends and relatives as well as snow and ice are our seasonal visitors. And there’s lots of icy company, all around the Northern Hemisphere, thanks to an active polar jet stream.

As of Monday, Dec. 19, NOAA’s Northern Hemisphere Snow and Ice Chart (https://www.nohrsc.noaa.gov/nh_snowcover/) showed varying types of frozen precipitation covering most of Europe south to the northern Italian b...