It's so cold in parts of the United States that a cup of boiling water tossed into the air can crystalize into ice and snow before it hits the ground.

Videos of such strikingly weird phenomena in Minnesota, Vermont, New Jersey, and elsewhere are making the rounds as subzero temperatures, high winds, and snow blasts across the country.

Thanks to a series of weather patterns, including a notorious bomb cyclone, Florida's capital got its first snowfall in three decades Much of New England, meanwhile, is bracing for a snowy hit from the bomb cyclone (also known as bombogenesis). (Related: "U.S. Cold Snap: What Do Bitter Temperatures Do to the Human Body?")

Here's the science behind viral cold-weather videos:

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