The internet has reacted in predictable fashion to the arrival of a winter storm in the U.S. in the days running up to Christmas.
An arctic blast is making its way across the country, bringing with it freezing temperatures, blizzards, snow, ice and rain at one of the busiest travel times of the year.
It's been predicted that the storm could hinder as much as two-thirds of the nation's flights over the course of Thursday and Friday, resulting in travel chaos for the many millions heading home for the holidays.
Those traveling by car are facing similar difficulties with blizzard conditions expected to threaten much of a 1,500-mile stretch from central Kansas to northwestern Quebec in Canada.
It's a situation that has sparked a wave of memes across social media, with many resorting to gallows humor in the face of the extreme storm front.
The vast majority of the gags on Twitter have seen users draw parallels between the arctic blast and the plot of the 2004 climate change disaster film The Day After Tomorrow.
Directed by Roland Emmerich and starring Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal, the film depicts the aftermath of a sudden worldwide storm that plunges Earth into a new ice age.
At the time of its release, The Day After Tomorrow was praised for shining a light on the topic of climate change, though the film also drew criticism for what many scientists saw as an entirely unrealistic scenario.
Speaking to USA Today in 2004, J. Marshall Shepherd, a research meteorologist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, said: "I'm heartened that there's a movie addressing real climate issues. But as for the science of the movie, I'd give it a D minus or an F."
In the same interview, Andrew Weaver, a climatologist at University of Victoria in Canada, said: "It's The Towering Inferno of climate science movies, but I'm not losing any sleep over a new ice age, because it's impossible."
Fast-forward nearly two decades, however, and the film was on the tip of everyone's tongue in the face of this latest storm front.
One Twitter user wrote "This cold front giving big Day After Tomorrow vibes" alongside a meme from the film.
Another social media user commenting on a weather report showing that the cold front resulted in a "32° drop in just 9 minutes" agreed "That's some The Day After Tomorrow stuff there."
Elsewhere, one person tweeted a picture of their front door being frozen on the inside with another Twitter user responding: "Lord this entire situation is giving Day After Tomorrow movie vibes."
The movie was once again referenced in response to another tweet confirming: "Cheyenne, WY just recorded a 40 degree temperature drop in 30 min."
Despite these alarming temperature drops, some felt people were overreacting to the situation. "2 cold days and it's like a rerun of Day After Tomorrow,'" one critic quipped.
Others felt there was plenty to be concerned about.
One user shared a timelapse video showing a visible cold front sweeping through Denver. According to the post, the temperatures where he was "dropped from 43° to 13° in just over 5 minutes."
That prompted one follower to ask: "Did movie Day After Tomorrow get it right?" alongside an image taken from the film of a frozen New York City.
The Day After Tomorrow memes continued to fly thick and fast in the face of reports confirming extreme weather conditions and dramatic temperature drops across the U.S.
According to the National Weather Service, over 100 million people, or roughly one-third of the U.S. population, are under winter alerts and wind chill alerts.
The freezing temperatures are expected to remain for the entire Christmas weekend.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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