Amid a dangerous arctic blast over much of the U.S. this week, snow and ice may bring major travel disruptions and power outages in the South, forecasters warned.

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.

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