lilas pointed me at this
article from the Weather Underground, which includes this colorful surface temperature departure from average map from the NOAA:

It just happens that the cold bits are in North America, Northwest Europe, and Northeast Asia, where lots of people--particularly ones well connected to media--live.
So you get stories like this one about
the train that got bogged down in seven feet of snow near Jining in Inner Mongolia:

This being China, they got a couple thousand people with shovels to dig out the train.

18 degrees below zero Fahrenheit and seven feet of snow. That's some serious winter weather.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-10 05:35 am (UTC)BTW, I just noticed your journal's tagline. BWAHAHAHAHA. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-10 08:54 pm (UTC)Glad you liked it! I wondered if anyone would notice. :)