A place to learn. About wearing layers. Photo: tlockhart via Flickr

This week's "cold snap" is really more of a "cold punch to the eyeballs." As such, you probably won't see too many arguments with a recent ranking of the nation's "coldest colleges," where the Midwest is heavily favored. If "favored" is what you'd choose to call it.  

You may have seen this banging around the net recently – the website College Prowler has listed the colleges and universities with the coldest winters (see the full list).

Hovering in the middle of the top 10, you'll find our very own UW-Eau Claire, with UW-Stout ranked between 10 and 15. The rankings are based on "student reviews of weather on campus, average high and low temperatures during summer and winter, and average summer and winter precipitation amounts." Looks like the student ranking causes some fluctuation, but you'll mostly find Minnesota and Canadian schools near the top.

Moorhead, Minn. looks particularly blessed with frozen campuses. With both Minnesota State - Moorhead and Concordia College resting within its chilly borders, it's able to claim the first and second highest rankings. Besides UWEC, You'll find four other Wisconsin schools in the top 25.