By Erik Ortiz—
NBC News
Forecasters warned Saturday that a strong wave of Arctic air will sweep across much of the United States this weekend, bringing bitter cold and dangerous icy conditions to tens of millions of people.
Meanwhile, climate-related deaths have already surpassed 60 nationwide.
Heavy snow blanketed parts of the Northeast and Midwest on Friday, and dropping temperatures overnight left roads slick.
The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency on Saturday announced two more deaths that occurred during an incident on a highway in rural Leflore County, north of Jackson.
No further details were immediately provided.
A female driver and her passenger try to clear snow from their windshield along Louisiana Street on January 18, 2024 in Buffalo, New York.John Normile/Getty Images
The state's death toll has reached at least eight people in the past week, with deaths attributed to road conditions and extreme cold.
In total, weather-related fatalities in the US have risen to at least 61 people amid the wave of winter weather in recent days.
Many of the deaths were reported in Tennessee and Oregon.
“Frostbite and hypothermia are likely with prolonged outdoor exposure,” emergency authorities in Mississippi said.
According to the National Weather Service, temperatures are expected to be in the single digits in Minneapolis and up to ten degrees in Chicago and St. Louis, as the wind chill was -30 in some areas of the northern plains.
In Baltimore, strong winds on Saturday will cause temperatures to drop.
Football fans attending the NFL playoff game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Houston Texans, scheduled for 4:30 pm at M&T Bank Stadium, were urged to dress warmly.
It will be a cold match, although it is not expected to break records like last weekend, when the Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins met in Kansas City.
Meanwhile, southern cities were also preparing for a freeze.
In Atlanta, the wind chill was around ten degrees this Saturday, while Nashville residents woke up to temperatures below zero degrees Fahrenheit.
Travel remained hazardous Saturday morning in the Great Lakes region, where snow showers were expected to return to parts of Michigan, Indiana and Illinois.
The additional snowfall comes after some parts of Indiana saw up to 32 inches of snow on Friday.
On the other hand, heavy rain is also forecast for this Saturday in Northern California, while thousands of residents in the Portland, Oregon, area were still without power after another round of freezing rain a day earlier.
There have been at least nine weather-related deaths in Oregon, including three people in Portland who were killed by a downed power line in an incident in which a young woman rescued a 9-month-old baby.
The latest cold snap is expected to improve after the weekend.
According to the National Weather Service, “without additional replenishment of Arctic air from Canada,” “steady warming” is expected in the center of the country starting Sunday.