What Winter Was Like the Year You Were Born By Rachel Cavanaugh, Stacker News On 2/6/21 at 9:00 AM EST The United States has seen a wide range of winters over the past century—everything from warm, mild years where folks could stroll leisurely through parks in February, to turbulent, frigid seasons where people had to hunker down inside. There were years where blizzards swept in unannounced, covering huge swaths of the country in blankets of snow, while other years brought hurricane-force winds to cities and towns across the nation. The Midwest region is particularly susceptible to cold winters, especially in states like Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Michigan. In these places, residents lie in the path of both the low-pressure systems that originate in Alberta and travel southward (sometimes called "Canadian clippers") and the shortwave low-pressure systems that come from the southwest, traveling northeast toward the Great Lakes region (also called "Panhandle hooks"). Additionally, some winters, particularly in recent years, see the polar vortex in the north sending giant masses of freezing Arctic air southward. These often settle over the Midwest, causing jarring and dangerous drops in temperature.