Hang In There Another Day Or So — Warmer Air Is Coming

By Mark Memmott

Published January 7, 2014 at 6:45 AM CST

Yes, it's going to be awfully cold again Tuesday for 150 million or so Americans.

But if below-zero temperatures aren't to your liking, take heart:

"Bitterly cold air over the eastern two-thirds of the country will slowly moderate through Wednesday," the National Weather Service says.

Indeed, check out the weather service's forecast maps for today, Wednesday and Thursday. We'll put them in a little slideshow. See how the blue area shrinks while the red, yellow and green areas expand? That's a sign of temperatures returning to normal across most of the nation.

Now, while the deep freeze is still here, we do not want to encourage anyone to do anything dumb. However, as Eyder wrote Monday, there are some cold-weather experiments you might want to try. We're particularly struck by how beautiful frozen soap bubbles can be.

Our friends at Morning Edition have also asked folks to share photos and stories of fun (and safe) things they're doing in the cold. They're collecting the responses in a Storify box that we'll embed below.

Related:

-- "Polar Vortex Blamed For Dangerously Cold Weather" ( Morning Edition)

-- "Most Dangerous Temps In Decades Push Across U.S" ( The Associated Press, via Minnesota Public Radio)

-- "Deep Freeze Closes Schools, Grounds Flights" ( USA Today)

-- "Gov. Cuomo Declares State Of Emergency" ( WXXI in Rochester, N.Y.)

-- "Winds Make Wake-Up Temps Of 4 To 8 Degrees Feel Like -5 To -11" ( The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Morning Edition's Storify follows.