Good morning and welcome to Kid News, generously sponsored today by the

Garland family of Maple Grove Minnesota to celebrate two big birthdays. Jackson

turned eight on January 30th and Avery turns 11 on February 13th. Mom, dad, and

puppy Ruby wish you both the best birthdays ever and say they couldn't be

more proud. I'm Tori. Today is Monday, February 6th, 2023, and we begin with a

high-flying problem, a problem no more. Over the weekend President Biden ordered

the Air Force to get rid of a gigantic suspicious balloon that had been

floating across the US for several days. American intelligence believed it was a

spy satellite from China. While China said it was nothing more than a

weather balloon that had drifted off course. Soon we'll know for sure, on Saturday

once the device was safely off the coast of South Carolina, the Air Force moved

and basically popped it. What was as large as three school buses deflated in a puff of

white smoke while its solar panels and surveillance equipment plunged into the

Atlantic. Navy divers are now searching for and recovering the debris so

analysts can determine exactly what it was being used for.

That Arctic blast is coming on in the northeastern part of the US but not before carving out

some historic new lows. Even notoriously cold Mount Washington and New Hampshire out did

itself this time. Temperatures at the summit dropped to 46 degrees below zero with a nationwide

record-setting windshield of minus 108. That's even colder than Mars which NASA says reached a

relatively bombing high of 16 degrees with a low of minus 105 last week. Other US city setting records

Worcester, Massachusetts with 13 below, Boston minus 10, and Providence Red Island and Hartford

Connecticut, both hit minus nine. The road to the White House no longer begins in Iowa.

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