The sprawling system is fueled by a blast of frigid air and is expected to bring major amounts of snow, ice and freezing rain to more than two dozen states from Texas all the way east up to the northeast.
To take into account those externalities means taking into account everything from the loss of seafront property and farm productivity to deaths caused by heatwaves (as well as those avoided in cold snaps).
They knew that the so-called " little ice age" , a series of cold snaps between, roughly, 1350 and 1850, had brought not only drought and famine, but also war – and so could these new climatic changes.
But they tightly clasped each other's hands, and, bending their little forms to meet the pressure of the cold, rushing air, hurried on as fast as they could.
Blowing snow in mountains of Northern California and Nevada closed key highways, while an arctic blast brought frigid temperatures to the Pacific Northwest.