The eastern half of the United States is affected by the recent Arctic blast from Minnesota through northern Florida to New England.

The lake-generated snow brought 3.5 feet of snow to western New York and up to 20 inches to northern Lower Michigan. Winds gusted to nearly 40 miles per hour, creating whiteout conditions in the heaviest lake-effect snow bands.

A lake effect snow warning remained in effect Friday morning for Ohio, Pennsylvania and western New York, where an additional 6 to 12 inches of snow could fall in some areas.

Wind chills early Friday will be below zero in Minneapolis, near zero in Chicago and in the teens and single digits above zero in the Northeast.

Temperatures will be near freezing in northern Florida and southern Georgia, where a freeze warning is posted.

Ice Storm Warning for the Midwest

A new storm system will move across the Plains and Midwest Friday evening into Saturday morning, with an ice storm warning for Iowa and ice warnings for Kansas to Minnesota.

Freezing rain could glaze roads to a thickness of more than half an inch, creating treacherous driving conditions.

An alert is in effect today through Saturday morning for Des Moines, Iowa, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Omaha, Nebraska. It will rain and temperatures will be below freezing. Traveling to the region is strongly advised against until early Saturday.

Flooding on the west coast and heavy snowfall

From this weekend into next week, severe storms will move across the West Coast, producing several feet of snow in the mountains and several inches of rain along the coast.

The first storm brought up to half a foot of snow to I-80 in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains and caused chaos with many accidents and major backups.

A new storm, even stronger, will move across the West Coast from Washington to California later today, Saturday, bringing heavy rain and mountain snow.

Four feet of snow is possible locally in the California mountains, where a winter storm warning has been issued.

Heavy rain of up to 5 inches is possible for Northern California, where a Flood Watch has been issued.

Areas north of the San Francisco Bay Area could see 2 to 3 inches of rain.