Meteorologists don't have the specific forecast ready yet, but there is a growing consensus that December will be a frigid one for parts of the United States.

The National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center says colder-than-normal weather is most likely in the northern and northeastern United States , but some forecasters say a complex dance involving the polar vortex could send some of Earth's most extreme cold toward the United States.

"My thinking is that the cold the first week of December is the appetizer and the main course will be in mid-December," said climatologist Judah Cohen , a research scientist at MIT, in an email to USA TODAY.

Indeed, according to Cohen's computer model, "which I can credibly claim as the world's best – is predicting that the most expansive r

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