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,

Florida and Texas were both under winter storm warning from the National Weather Service (NWS) on Tuesday morning as an arctic air mass caused plunging temperatures and heavy snow along the Gulf Coast.