BOSTON >> Tens of millions of residents along the East Coast braced 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.

Winter storm warnings issued by the National Weather Service have already gone into effect for parts of the Mid-Atlantic through Monday morning, with the forecast projecting up to a half foot of snow. Warnings will begin in New England on Sunday afternoon, with parts of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and Connecticut seeing as much as 10 inches of snow.

Marc Chenard, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in College Park, Md., projected that as many as 70 million residents will be under some kind of winter storm warning in the coming days including in New England and the Mid-Atlantic. Large cities such as Philadelphia, New York and Boston could see several inches of snow this evening with the highest totals accumulating outside of major cities.

“There will certainly be some more hazardous road conditions anywhere from D.C. up the whole I-95 corridor and then inland from there later today and tonight,” Chenard said.

The snowfall was disrupting airline flights along the Eastern Seaboard. Nearly 130 flights at New York City-area airports were canceled and nearly 90 others were delayed, according to the FlightAware flight tracking service.

Return of the Arctic blast

But the snow is just the start of a chaotic week of weather.

Much of the Eastern Seaboard will be enduring some of the coldest temperatures this winter.

An area from the Rockies into the Northern Plains will see colder than normal temperatures over several days with temperatures dropping to minus 30 degrees F to minus 55 F on Sunday and Monday. Wind chills of minus 40 F were already recorded in parts of North Dakota and Minnesota. Sub-zero wind chills are forecast to reach as far south as Oklahoma and the Tennessee Valley.

The cold weather forecasted for Monday for Washington, D.C., prompted President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural ceremony to be moved inside the U.S. Capitol Rotunda.

This cold snap comes from a disruption in the polar vortex, the ring of cold air usually trapped about the North Pole.

The cold air will moderate as it moves southward and eastward, but the Central and Eastern U.S. will still experience temperatures in the teens and 20s Monday into Tuesday, Chenard said. The Mid-Atlantic and Northeast also will have highs in the teens and 20s, lows in the single digits and below zero degrees F and wind chills below zero.

The colder temperatures will dip into the South early this week, where as many as 30 million people starting Monday could see a wintry mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain. The unusual conditions are expected to stretch from Texas into northern Florida and the Carolinas.

Minnesota’s cold snap

“A cold snap has taken ahold of a large part of the country, and as we are the icebox of the country as it is, we saw teens and 20s below across Minnesota this morning,” said Brent Hewett, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Twin Cities office.

Although Minnesotans haven’t seen a cold snap of this duration for four years, it’s pretty typical for the state, he said.

And the lows aren’t as low as what was seen in January of 2019 when temperatures dropped to -30 (-60 with windchill), he said.

The good news for those that dislike the extreme cold but like the snow?

Next month, the region may see one or two-day cold snaps that aren’t as cold and don’t last as long.

“The pattern will be more supportive of potential snow systems in February,” he said. “We’ve been getting a lot of questions: it’s been cold, but where’s the snow? When it’s this cold it’s very difficult to get snow.”

Hewett said that with temperatures this low it’s easy to get hypothermia. He said it wouldn’t be a bad idea to go check on older or more vulnerable neighbors.

Minnesota residents were urged to wear appropriate clothing and carry a survival kit for travel. Kristi Rollwagen, director of homeland security and emergency management at the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, also urged motorists to drive with a full tank of gas and a fully charged cellphone.

This report includes reporting by the Pioneer Press.