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Chicago's Frigid Temps Outfreeze Even Antarctica

(CBS) -- Looking for someplace to go to warm up amid Chicago's deep freeze? Try the South Pole.

Yes, it's actually warmer in much of Antarctica than it is in Chicago on Monday.

The city set a new record for lowest temperature on Jan. 6, at about 8 a.m., when the temperature at O'Hare International Airport dropped to 16 below zero.

At the same time, it was only 9 below zero at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica, according to data from the National Weather Service.

Granted, it's summer in Antarctica, because it's the southern hemisphere, but the temperature at the South Pole rarely ever ventures above zero. The highest recorded temperature there in the past 32 years was only 6 degrees.

So how about the North Pole? Well, we couldn't find weather data for there, but not far away in Barrow, Alaska, about as far north as you can get in North America, it was 5 below zero at the same time Chicago was setting its record low temperature.

We could have it worse, though. At least we're not in Minneapolis or Fargo, where the temperature dropped to 23 degrees below zero overnight. So we have that going for us. Which is nice.

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