Mars is warmer than some parts of the U.S. and Canada

WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- On Thursday, the daily high temperature at Gale Crater -- a depression in the northwestern portion of Mars' Aeolis quadrangle -- climbed to negative 8 degrees Celsius (17.6 degrees Fahrenheit). It was like a sauna for the Mars rover Curiosity, which is used to temperatures that often dip below minus 100 degrees Celsius.

Meanwhile, in much of the northern United States and Canada, the mercury dropped to below negative 20 degrees Celsius (negative 4 degrees Fahrenheit).

It will be colder than @MarsCuriosity's location in Gale Crater throughout much the northern US and Canada today pic.twitter.com/BFVTrsa58P

— Mars Weather (@MarsWxReport) January 8, 2015

The rover's stomping grounds were warmer than most of New England and the upper Midwest -- warmer than Green Bay, Wisconsin; Detroit, Michigan; and Chicago, Illinois. The entirety of Maine and Minnesota were chillier than Gale Crater on Thursday. And wind chills made things extra numbingly cold for much of the U.S. this week.

Canadian officials issued extreme cold warnings in much of Quebec and Newfoundland.

Of course, there is a caveat to the story. Earth has an atmosphere that stabilizes temperatures. Mars isn't so lucky. As soon as the sun went down on Mars on Thursday, temperatures dropped precipitously -- a plummet of more than 100 degrees Celsius, pushing the low below minus 140 degrees Celsius. Nowhere on the surface of planet Earth is ever as cold as Mars is during the middle of the night.