Most of the United States is being assailed with extreme winter weather this week as Arctic air blasts south from Canada, snow tracks up the Northeast coast and a potentially crippling winter storm takes aim at the South.

A winter storm warning has been issued for the Houston area for the first time in nearly two years as a rare Gulf Coast winter storm promises heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain. The National Weather Service in League City,

Residents across the country from the Northern Plains to the tip of Maine are bracing for dangerously low temperatures as residents along the East Coast contend with a thick blanket of snow — and more snowfall in the forecast.

The snow is likely to fall on Sunday from the Appalachians to New England. New York City may see its largest snowfall in years.

Tens of millions of residents along the East Coast are bracing for several inches of snow Sunday followed by dangerously cold temperatures that will grip much of the country from the Northern Plains to the tip of Maine.