Hi Matt, thanks for your question. The minor SSW is likely helping to reinforce blocking over Greenland and a negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation. This pattern is associated with colder snowier weather over the eastern coast of the US. In addition, the stratospheric polar vortex is now stretching down across North America. This may also encourage the tropospheric polar jet stream to head further south, bringing cold Arctic air with it to the central US. (one of my favorite websites to look at the structure of the vortex vertically is here: https://stratobserve.com/misc_vort3d).  That being said, we can't directly attribute the midwest cold to the minor SSW or the polar vortex shape; the polar vortex changes may help "load the dice" for cold air outbreaks but many elements must come together for weather extremes to occur.