Tornadoes have killed at least two people in Louisiana as a violent weather system moves across the U.S., spawning blizzards in the Great Plains that will be followed by a blast of the season’s coldest weather to the Midwest, Northeast and Texas.

Thunderstorms on Dec. 14 will continue to pound the Gulf Coast, while heavy snow will fall for another day across the Great Plains. That storm will be followed by frigid conditions in the East that could last through the Christmas holiday.

Winter storm warnings and weather advisories stretch from New Hampshire to Virginia, including Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia, where freezing rain and ice are expected to make travel hazardous Dec. 15. The storm will mostly bring rain to New York City and Boston, while upstate New York and New England will get a blanket of snow.



“An arctic airmass is going to be sliding east of the northern Rockies spreading across a good portion of the central and eastern U.S. late this weekend,” said Frank Pereira, a senior branch forecaster at the U.S. Weather Prediction Center.

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Up to 6 inches of snow is also forecast to fall in Toronto and Ottawa by Dec. 15, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada.

When the storm exits, the season’s coldest air for the U.S. will arrive, the Weather Prediction Center said in a tweet Dec. 14. Temperatures will drop as much as 15 degrees F below normal across the Great Plains, Midwest and southeastern U.S. next week, Brian Bardone, a meteorologist with Commodity Weather Group, said in his forecast. The chill will moderate slightly but then spread across almost the entire eastern U.S. starting Dec. 24.