Forecasters are warning of treacherous holiday travel and life-threatening cold for big parts of the nation, an arctic air mass blows into the already-frigid southern United States.
In a special weather statement Sunday, the National Weather Service predicted “extreme and prolonged freezing conditions for southern Mississippi and southeast Louisiana.”
Earlier storm is winding down
The rare arctic air mass comes as an earlier storm system gradually winds down in the northeastern U.S., after burying parts of the region under two feet of snow.
More than 80,000 customers in New England were still without power Sunday morning.