CNN
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Mother Nature is preparing to return to winter in the United States following a recent hot spell and the warmest winter on record.

Multiple bursts of increasingly brutal, cold Arctic air will blanket the eastern two-thirds of the country over the next few days, dropping temperatures to dangerous lows by next week.

Temperatures will be the coldest of the winter so far and will be frigid even for what is already the coldest time of the year. The cold will be pervasive – more than 70% of the country’s population will experience freezing temperatures next week – and will last well into the month, increasing the likelihood of snow.

The first blast of cold air will reach the northern United States on Wednesday, with high temperatures in the single digits or teens expected for parts of Montana, the Dakotas and Minnesota.

Cold air will spread south and east daily for the rest of the week and weekend. The West will largely avoid a significant cold, as has been the trend at least since the fall.

High temperatures in Chicago will be in the low 20s through Friday, which is about 10 degrees colder than normal for early January. In Kansas City, Missouri, St. Louis and Cincinnati, temperatures may not rise above freezing.

Low temperatures early Saturday will be downright freezing for millions of people. Single-digit lows will reach Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois, while lows could dip as low as 25 degrees below zero in northern North Dakota.

Windy conditions across the eastern half of the U.S. will make it feel even colder than the thermometer indicates for some. To prevent frostbite and hypothermia, it’s important to dress for what the air actually feels like in the winter – known as wind chill.

People in southeast Atlanta and along the Interstate 95 corridor from Raleigh, North Carolina, to Boston need to prepare to feel like teenagers on Saturday morning.

Temperatures this weekend will be 5 to 20 degrees colder than normal across much of the central and eastern U.S., including the Gulf Coast states.

A high in the low 70s is typical for Orlando, Florida, early in the year, but the city may not break out of the 50s on Saturday and may not reach the low 60s until Sunday.

This first blast of cold air over the weekend is just a taste. A more brutal blast of freezing air – the coldest of the season – along with dangerous wind chills, will push into the northern U.S. on Monday and blanket the eastern two-thirds of the country by Tuesday.

Temperatures could fall 10 to over 30 degrees below normal next week. Cold winds make the cold dangerous for anyone without access to warmth or shelter, especially overnight.

Some of the most significant below-average temperatures will occur in the Southeast. Overnight lows could fall below freezing at times along the Gulf Coast next week. New Orleans does not often reach or fall below the freezing mark, but could reach that threshold next week for the first time since last January.

The unusual cold could also reach far enough south to wreak havoc on Florida’s extremely delicate citrus crops and cause iguanas to fall from trees.

The cold is expected to last until the second weekend of January. This could result in the atmosphere being primed for the release of snow and ice – possibly in places that don’t normally get snow and ice.

Winter precipitation isn’t a guarantee this far in advance, but the latest forecasts from the Climate Prediction Center highlight parts of the Midwest, Northeast, Southern Plains and Southeast as places to watch next week

CNN meteorologist Monica Garrett contributed to this report.