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It’s cold in northern Minnesota.

How cold is it? It is reported that temperatures in Duluth and surrounding region of northern Minnesota have been colder than Mars this week, according to reports from NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity on the Red Planet.

Embarrass and International Falls were both under 40 below (F) Thursday night, while the Mars rover reported a mere 26 below. Temperatures at least that cold are forecast for Sunday and Monday.

In other words, a planet 140 million miles further from the Sun than Earth was warmer than parts of northern Minnesota last night. Granted, there are caveats. The Mars rover is close to the Martian equator right now. (The average temperature on Mars is 80 below, Fahrenheit). Still, there it is.

It’s going to be a little warmer today — perhaps even above zero. Then another week-long cold snap is expected, making us once again colder than Mars.

Worried about how to survive the cold? I wrote about that last month.

UPDATE: Martian cold is apparently enough to cancel all Minnesota schools on Monday, Jan. 6. Gov. Mark Dayton issued the order late this morning. But, as David in the comments section points out, it’s all relative. Up in Winnipeg they’ve had -58 for a spell with no cancellations. At least we can all agree that people on the East Coast are wimps, right?

UPDATE 2: The Canadians have arrived to pour very, very cold water all over the Mars story. Technically, we will be colder than Mars this weekend. But Mars is all over the place. Mars climate rules are different.