Meteorologists call it the cross-polar flow: When the jet stream picks up arctic air from the North Pole and delivers it straight to Waltham via Canada's central plains and the Great Lakes. But, Brandeis students simply call it cold -- bitter cold.

"It feels like I've been sent to Siberia," said Karol Flores '06, a native of Bolivia. "In La Paz, where I am from, it rarely gets below 50 degrees. Here, the temperature just keeps falling even though we are midway through the winter -- it's colder than I ever expected."

While New England's collective snow shovel has seldom been used over the past three years, this winter it has not had a break. Waltham has been hit with near-record-breaking snowfall figures; about 55 inches of snow have fallen on central Massachusetts so far, and Brandeis students are reacting to the icy conditions.

"It's the kind of cold that pinches your cheeks and nose and makes you never want to go out again," Ally Orenstein '06 said.

And, the worst weather has yet to come. The National Weather Service issued a warning Sunday, stating that a cold front moving over New England will usher in the coldest blast of arctic air to date. Wind chill factors are expected to drop as low as 35 degrees below zero tonight and the mercury is predicted to dip into record-breaking values.

For Krystel Ariel '06, from Southern Florida, winter in Waltham has meant a change in lifestyle.

"I'm not adjusting, I'm freezing," Ariel said, while heating up a can of New England clam chowder. "It's inhuman. Everything dies. If I had to be out all the time, I'd die too."

Students all seem to have a similar way of coping with this interminable winter wonderland: Avoidance.

"We just Bran-Van it everywhere," said Carolyn Barnett '06, who complains that Massachusetts is at least 10 degrees colder than her native New Jersey.

Despite the cold weather, Nahum Shalman, '03, a resident adviser in Reitman Hall, said he has not heard too many complaints from his residents, some of whom hail from the warm climates of Florida and Arizona. "I think everyone does a bit of whining, but most of us just suck it up and deal," said Shalman, from Buffalo.

Instead of sucking up the cold, many Brandeisians opt for something a little warmer. As a result, coffee and other hot beverages are in demand. "We're definitely selling a lot more coffee -- more coffee and cold medicine," Expressway Employee Sonia Gecker '05 said.

This week, the forecast may not improve until Friday, with low temperatures throughout the week predicted in the single digits.