Tens of millions of Americans awoke on Jan. 22 to some form of winter weather alert, as a winter storm takes shape in the southwestern U.S. and threatens to spread huge totals of snow and freezing rai...

A major winter storm is forecast to spread heavy snow, sleet and dangerous ice to tens of millions of Americans across two dozen states starting on Friday and continuing into the weekend.

The center said there’s “high confidence in an extreme event, leading to long-lasting impacts both to travel and infrastructure” because of the bitter cold that will linger after the storm.