Extreme weather across the nation this week. New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. experiencing record high temperatures. Meanwhile, parts of Washington state and Denver are seeing record lows. Mashable's Andrew Freedman explains how the polar vortex split is causing wild weather coast to coast.
"In this case the Polar Vortex split into two. You had one portion of it move into the Western U.S. and Canada. While at the same time one portion moved into Europe and Eurasia. So those are the two cold spots of the northern hemisphere right now. And in the eastern U.S. suddenly we had this incredible warm up," explains Freedman.
In New York City people felt a high of 72 degrees, which beat the warmest temperature on this date since 1930 when it reached 68 degrees on February 21st.
"It's easier for us to set these high temperature records as the climate continues to warm. So that's the bottom line," says Freedman.
Read more at [Mashable](https://mashable.com/2018/02/15/polar-vortex-split-stratospheric-warming-snow-cold-europe-us/).
A California appeals court on Wednesday will consider reviving the dismissed lawsuits of two men who allege Michael Jackson sexually abused them as children for years, a move the court appears likely to make after a tentative decision that would order the cases back to a lower court for trial.
An intense police search of the Long Island home of Rex Heuermann is now complete, authorities said Tuesday as they ended a 12-day hunt for evidence that involved ripping up the yard and the discovery of a basement vault containing hundreds of weapons kept by the man accused of killing at least three women more than a decade ago.
A towering construction crane caught fire high above the west side of Manhattan on Wednesday morning, then lost its long arm, which smashed against a nearby building, dangled and then plummeted to the street as people ran for their lives on the sidewalk below.
