The National Weather Service issues a “severe cold” warning across the United States

The National Weather Service (NWS) has issued a warning that an extremely cold arctic storm will move across the United States over the weekend, adding to an already stormy January across the country.

Arctic temperatures will move in from the west, impacting the northern Rockies and northern Plains beginning Thursday evening and into Friday.

The National Weather Service expects cold temperatures to move south and east across the Plains and Midwest over the weekend, as temperatures could reach cold daily records in the south-central United States on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

Parts of Texas and the interior Southeast regions may see below-zero wind chills early next week. Over the weekend, wind chills in the Rockies and northern Plains will be below minus 40 degrees.

“This will increase the risk of frostbite on exposed skin and hypothermia,” the Met Office said in an advisory, adding that if people must travel, they should do so with a cold survival kit.

The cold air will usher in another storm system across the West on Friday. Snow is expected to fall with “significant impacts” in Oregon, Idaho, Nevada and Utah.

As the storm system moves east, it will likely bring snow inland and south across the mid-Atlantic regions Sunday into Monday, and possibly bring some to the Northeast on Tuesday and Wednesday, the National Weather Service forecast.

Polar vortex air typically stays 15 to 30 miles above the ground, but last week there was a small disturbance that increased the chances of a cold air outbreak, Amy Butler, an atmospheric scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told Nexstar, The Hill's. The parent company, in a statement.

Blizzard conditions with 6 to 12 inches of snow could head to the Midwest, and the southern U.S. is bracing for potential tornadoes, The Hill previously reported.

The Southwest Power Pool, which oversees electricity reliability in 14 states, announced several warnings to power operators ahead of the storm, which could result in a “higher than normal risk of power outages.”