When was the last time winter was this consistently cold?

If you live in the East, has this winter felt exceptionally cold to you?

The data backs you up. Swaths of the Northeast and mid-Atlantic are in the midst of their coldest winter in more than 20 years – and in some places, much longer. For most of the Midwest, mid-South, Southeast and parts of Florida, it’s been the coldest winter in five to 20 years, based on average temperatures since the start of December.

Around D.C., so far it’s been the coldest since the 2010-11 season. In New York, you would have to go back 32 long years to 1994-95 to find a colder winter. And most remarkably, it’s been chilliest since 1985-1986 in Baltimore.

Meanwhile, for just about everyone living near or west of the Rocky Mountains, winter has been almost nonexistent and filled with record warmth.

“Denver is the new Florida,” wrote meteorologist Jeff Berardelli, citing the huge number of 60 degree days that the Colorado city has experienced this winter.

Deep cold has had some unusual impacts

Persistent and extreme cold in parts of the eastern United States as well as Canada has led to some unusual phenomena.

That includes widespread and significant ice cover in the Great Lakes, on rivers in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic, and extremely rare snow near the tropics.

Widespread ice cover on Lake Erie

Lake Erie, the shallowest of the Great Lakes, reached about 96 % ice cover Feb. 5, the highest in a decade. The last time the lake reported 100% ice cover was in February 1996.

On Feb. 8, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s GOES East satellite captured a massive fracture forming in the ice on Lake Erie.

It was approximately 80 miles long, stretching from Port Burwell, Ontario, to near Cleveland, the agency wrote.

Photographer Kyle Wicks shared these icy scenes near the shores of Lake Erie in Chatham, Ontario, highlighting how frigid, windy conditions have frozen waves in place.

Although the ice might look frozen solid, it may not be.

This month, a person who sustained a leg injury while walking on a Lake Michigan ice shelf was rescued approximately 100 yards offshore.

“This is the second incident of this kind this winter. We are again appealing to people to stay off the Lake Michigan ice shelves and pier heads,” wrote South Haven Area Emergency Services.

Icy Hudson River

Last weekend, as New Yorkers were breathing air that had been over the North Pole 10 days earlier, ice cover on the Hudson River was growing.

“This isn’t your typical view of the Hudson River across from Manhattan – widespread ice coverage across the river this morning,” meteorologist Tomer Burg wrote.

The icy landscape was also captured from above, revealing a channel on the Hudson River that was carved out by icebreakers.

For many parts of this region, it’s been the coldest winter since the mid-1990s.

Ice in New England

In New England, waterways are iced over. Ice cover on the Connecticut River is especially thick, with some suggesting it’s the thickest ice they’ve seen in years and expressing concerns about ice jams this spring.

Ferry trips to Nantucket, Massachusetts, have also been canceled due to large amounts of ice on Hyannis Harbor, according to local reports.

In this region, it’s been the coldest winter in 10 to 20 years.

Frozen-solid D.C. and mid-Atlantic

The Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang shared photos of a D.C. frozen solid to an extent seldom seen.

Kevin Ambrose, photographer and Capital Weather Gang contributor, said that it reminded him of Library of Congress photos of winter scenes in D.C. from over 100 years ago.

“It’s something we haven’t seen in a long time,” he said.

Farther north, the National Weather Service in Mount Holly, New Jersey, shared satellite imagery of ice extending from Delaware Bay out into the Atlantic.

“We’ve been talking about ice on our waterways a lot lately and for good reason. The Delaware Bay up to the ports along the Delaware River are one of the busiest shipping channels in the country,” the office stated.

Rare snow and cold

This season, flurries have been spotted as far south as Cape Coral, Florida. There has been much more snow in Charlotte than there’s been in Salt Lake City.

Extremely rare snow was observed in Bermuda as the temperature dipped into the lower 40s. Snow was also reported there in January 1874.

The temperature reached freezing in Cuba for the first time on record, setting a new national low-temperature record.

Meanwhile, a February thaw will continue in central and eastern states next week, as the West turns cold and stormy.