Polar Vortex: People Purposely Froze Their Pants And Hair For Fun

It has been so cold around the Midwest this week that weather officials actually warned people not to take deep breaths or talk if they had to be outside during, and if they did venture out during the polar vortex, to make sure their skin wasn’t exposed. Frostbite can happen very, very quickly, and extreme cold isn't anything to take lightly.

Predictably, some people ignored that advice and ventured into the dangerous cold in pursuit of their 15 minutes of internet fame in what can rightfully be described as polar vortex foolishness. Temperatures dipped far below minus 20 degrees as far south as Iowa and Illinois, and wind chill values went even farther south, to around minus 50 or 60 degrees.

One stunt literally made a woman’s hair stand on end. Taylor Scallon of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, wet down her long brown tresses and walked outside, which caused her hair to freeze and stand on in end. She posted a video on Twitter that has been viewed more than 2.4 million times.

Iowans also had a lot of fun freezing their pants. The temperature Wednesday morning was a bone-chilling minus 33 degrees in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and to demonstrate how cold that is, 25-year-old Melanie Rasmussen soaked her jeans in water and set them outside. The pants froze solid in 30 minutes.

Yes, yes it does.

It was a comparatively balmy farther south in Kansas City, where the low Wednesday morning was in the single digits below zero. But it was still cold enough to freeze a bowl of hot ramen noodles so they would hold up a pair of chopsticks.

And, of course, there's the challenge nearly as old as cold weather itself of throwing boiling water into the Arctic air — but seriously, that’s all you’ve got? This guy from Minnesota took the old challenge to a new level.

And this never gets old.

The polar vortex moved was northward back over Canada at week’s end, but weather experts say it could return again before February is over.

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Photo: Steam billows from a smokestack in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota, as the area deals with dangerously cold temperatures that have not been felt in close to 20 years. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)