A polar vortex is slated to sweep most of the continental United States bringing a hazardous freeze to millions of Americans from the Deep South to the Northeast Saturday going into next week.

Frigid temperatures engulfed the South on Monday ahead of a winter storm that's expected to spread heavy snow and disruptive ice around a region from Texas to north Florida that rarely sees such weather,

Around 40 million people in the U.S. are under a winter storm warning from an unusual blast of severe winter weather.