Boiling water instantly turns to snow as US faces -37C temperatures

It's getting so cold in some parts of the US that people are able to make snow just by hurling boiling water in the air.

If you've ever been in extremely cold temperatures you'll know the freezing air starts to do funny things to the surrounding area.

Cold weather can produce some stunningly beautiful sights as the ice makes wild sculptures of the world around it.

Meanwhile, the sight of water freezing in people's taps is far less impressive to look at, and a chilling reminder that the icy weather poses all sorts of problems.

Temperatures are dropping across the US as the place is set for what experts are calling a 'once in a generation' winter storm.

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The storm began in the Pacific Northwest on 20 December and has been sweeping over the land since then, with 90 million people living under winter weather alerts and another 87 million told to beware of wind chill.

As if that wasn't bad enough, conditions are expected to worsen until it becomes something called a 'bomb cyclone', which sounds like something you'd never want coming towards you.

Severe winds, heavy rains and extreme snow conditions are forecast as a bomb cyclone throws out all sorts of different weather conditions.

They are an incredibly nasty winter event to be stuck in, so people freezing their knackers off in the incredibly cold weather had better find some way of entertaining themselves until the storm passes.

Some people are using the cold temperatures as a prime opportunity to have a bit of fun and test what mother nature can do when you're stuck in one of her extremes.

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Twitter user Bartholomew demonstrated just that by sharing a video which showed things were so cold that throwing a pot full of boiling water up into the freezing air would turn it to snow instantly as it rained back down to the ground.

Slowly drifting downwards, the cloud of new snow which had been boiling water just a few seconds ago had been through an amazing transformation.

While it may look incredible and be a very useful bit of scientific knowledge to have there are plenty of risks involved with pulling such a stunt.

Not to be all 'don't run with scissors', but please remember that chucking pots of boiling water over your own head is a really dangerous thing to do and can go horribly wrong.