About 8 inches (20 centimeters) of snow covered the ground and plants outside Braden Doucet’s Lafayette, Louisiana, home Tuesday afternoon. It's also cold. Much colder than normal. The temperature Tuesday night is expected to sink to 12 degrees F (minus 11 Celsius) and evening lows are predicted to be below freezing through Friday.

The South is bracing for a major winter storm, most of the nation remains gripped by extreme cold, and high winds could fan flames in California.

More than 170 million people across the United States, from the Mexican border to the Canadian border are under cold weather alerts ahead of a crippling winter storm expected to sweep through the south from Texas to Georgia,

On Tuesday at 3:32 a.m. an extreme cold warning was issued by the NWS Greenville-Spartanburg SC valid from 7 p.m. until Wednesday noon.

This new type of weather warning was activated because of the dangerously cold temperatures and wind-chill readings in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Multiple places in New Jersey have temperatures well below zero on Tuesday morning at about 7 a.m., according to NJWeather.org, the state climatologist’s office. Among the lowest temps are -14 in Sandyston in Sussex County and -7 in Hackettstown in Warren County.

CHICAGO — National Weather Service officials issued a cold weather advisory in effect until 2 p.m. Tuesday for portions of central, east central and northeast Illinois as well as northwest Indiana. Officials said dangerously cold wind chills may reach as low as 28 below zero causing frostbite to those exposed to the frigid temperatures in as little as 30 minutes.