The first day of spring didn't feel very spring-like for many Americans.

With snow totals topping 16 inches in parts of New England and temperatures only forecast to reach the teens in parts of the Midwest, Wednesday was decidedly wintry, regardless of the date of the calendar.

Snow and sleet slammed the Northeast, with lingering snowfall on Wednesday leaving 7 inches in winter-weary Boston, according to weather.com. Parts of New Hampshire saw 16 inches; Maine got a foot.

Nina Walker, who lives in the Boston suburb of Woburn, told The Associated Press she shoveled about 8 inches of snow off her driveway on Tuesday. Having lived in New England her whole life, she said late-season snowstorms were fine -- but only until March 31.

"Once I hear the word 'April,' I am really offended when I hear the word 'snow,'" she said. "So this is OK today, but a couple of weeks from now, it had better not happen."

Read more from weather.com 

 Temperatures battled to get out of the single-digits in Minnesota, reported KARE11.com, an NBC affiliate in Minneapolis-St. Paul. It was the coldest start to spring for Minneapolis in 48 years, the station said.

 In Michigan, 15 inches of snow were reported, which included both lake-effect snow and snow from the same system that had made its way to the Northeast, weather.com said.

 One to six inches more were possible in Michigan and Wisconsin -- which got 11 inches in the north-central part of the state -- and one to three inches were forecast for northern Indiana and northeast Ohio, which were already pummeled by freezing rain and ice this week.

Winslow Townson / AP

A pedestrian walks through the campus of Phillips Academy during a winter storm in Andover, Mass., on Tuesday, March 19. Winter went out with a blast in the Northeast on Tuesday, snow and sleet closing schools in some areas and making roads an icy, slippery mess a day before spring starts.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

BOSTON -- New Englanders were preparing for another messy day of snow as they welcomed spring's unseasonable arrival.

Forecasts called for as much as 16 inches of snow in parts of northern New England through Wednesday morning, bringing slippery road conditions. Snow was expected to taper off in other locations.

"It's the real deal — the heavy, wet snow," said National Weather Service forecaster John Cannon in Gray, Maine. "Travel will be treacherous into the early morning hours."

Snow and sleet blasted the Northeast on Tuesday, where some places received over a foot of snow. Classes were canceled in some districts in Massachusetts, Connecticut and upstate New York, adding a few more snow days to the calendar.

Snow also socked other parts of the northern U.S., with as much as 2 feet forecast in parts of Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Icy roads caused numerous auto accidents. In Marlborough, Mass., the Harlem Globetrotters' bus collided with a car on Interstate 290, but no one was hurt and the bus was able to drive away, the state police said. No citations were issued.

There was nothing unusual about a snowstorm in the Northeast this late in the season, when it can still get plenty cold.

"They don't happen all the time, but it's not, you know, unheard of," said Alan Dunham, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Taunton, Mass.

Nina Walker, of Woburn in suburban Boston, said she had to shovel about 8 inches of snow off her driveway before driving to Boston's South Station to take a train to New York. As a lifelong New Englander, she takes the snow in stride, but draws the line at storms after March 31.

"Once I hear the word 'April,' I am really offended when I hear the word 'snow,'" she said. "So this is OK today, but a couple of weeks from now, it had better not happen."

Related:

Full coverage from weather.com

Severe storms, large hail cause extensive damage in South

This story was originally published on Wed Mar 20, 2013 5:13 AM EDT

A late-season storm that threatened to dump up to a foot of heavy snow right before the start of spring slammed the Northeast on Tuesday.

The storm brought a burst of heavy snow in southern New England that was replaced by a mix of sleet and freezing rain in Connecticut and Rhode Island through the morning, the National Weather Service said.

About seven inches had accumulated in parts of Boston by 9 a.m. local time, NBC affiliate WHDH reported. School was canceled in Boston and Worcester, Mass., and residents could expect a mix of rain and snow through Tuesday night, tapering off into flurries on Wednesday morning, according to the weather service.

More from Weather.com

With the official arrival of spring only a day away, New Englanders said they had seen enough snow for one winter.

“I hate it,” Jennifer Hutchins of Concord, N.H., told The Associated Press. “I guess I like to watch it fall, but I don’t like it when it sticks around.”

Rogelio V. Solis / AP

Golf-ball sized hail litters the ground as Andrew Stamps and his wife Valorie prepare to cover their car's rear window after the glass was shattered in a hailstorm on Monday in Pearl, Miss.

"I'm tired of it," Paula Lochhead told the AP. "But we live in New Hampshire, what are you gonna do?"

A FedEx truck slid off ice-slicked roads in Wallingford, Conn., and narrowly missed slamming into a house as it went down an embankment. The driver of the truck was not seriously harmed, NBC Connecticut reported.

Snow also hit New York and New Jersey on Monday night, with reports of a number of accidents as drivers tried to negotiate slushy streets, according to NBC New York.

Some three inches of snow fell on parts of New York City and Long Island before it stopped around midnight, the station said. Suburbs north and west of the city could see 3 to 5 inches before rain sets in. Up to 8 inches were expected at higher elevations in the Poconos, Catskills and Hudson Valley.

Hail smashes cars, breaks windows in South

New York state police said they had responded to 80 reports of accidents or disabled vehicles in a four-county region east of the Hudson River, NBC New York reported.

Forty-eight flights were cancelled at Boston’s Logan Airport and 29 grounded at LaGuardia in New York as of 10 a.m. on Tuesday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Related:

Severe storms, large hail pummel parts of South

This story was originally published on Tue Mar 19, 2013 5:48 AM EDT

A winter storm was expected to bring up to a foot of snow to parts of New England on Friday.

Forecasters said Boston could get up to 6 inches of snow and New York as much as 3 inches. Interior Massachusetts could be hit harder — up to 12 inches.

The system was expected to hang out through Saturday morning.

"We are watching a conveyor belt of wave after wave of snow coming in over the Atlantic," Alan Dunham, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service told the AP. "The morning commute will definitely be a challenge," he added, especially for those headed into Boston from the south.

NBC Connecticut warned that "isolated power outages are possible from the combination of wet snow accumulating on trees and power lines and gusty winds."

"Late Friday into Friday night, the storm will finally shift out to sea with impacts limited to lingering breezy winds along the Northeast coast by Saturday morning," according to weather.com.

Parts of the Jersey shore, still struggling to recover from superstorm Sandy, were dealing with a new bout of flooding on Thursday. 

Pounding surf broke through a temporary dune in Mantoloking during the early-morning high tide, sending water flowing onto a section of Route 35, which was closed for several hours.

New Jersey's Department of Transportation, Mantoloking's public works crews and contractors on Thursday were scooping and pushing sand back into the breach.

"They're trying to keep the dune system intact," Police Chief Mark Wright told the AP. 

Other shore towns also had trouble with flooding, including Sea Bright, where firefighters put out a blaze in a vacant commercial building sparked by a downed power line.

Steven Senne / AP

Ocean waves crash over a seawall and into houses along the coast in Scituate, Mass., on Thursday.

Along the Massachusetts coast, which was hammered by a blizzard four weeks ago, people braced for surging seas. Homeowners were encouraged to evacuate. Photos showed two-story-high waves crashing against seawalls.

“We still have remnants of the last storm in the yard,” Paula Polasky, who lives in the coastal town of Scituate, told NBC station WHDH in Boston before packing up and leaving. “I’m not going to take any chances this time.”

Parts of Pennsylvania and Ohio woke up to as much as 6 inches of snow Thursday, with the possibility of more in the Philadelphia suburbs into Friday, NBC Philadelphia reported.

The system was a no-show in Washington, where predictions of the worst snowfall in two years came to nothing more than a slushy annoyance. It was far more impressive to the west: Parts of Virginia got 20 inches of snow.

People in the nation's capital didn’t even need to break out snow shovels after the storm left only a scattering of flakes.

Federal offices closed, schools were shut and Congress postponed hearings on Wednesday as the city braced for what people online dubbed Snowquester, after the automatic budget cuts known as the sequester.

“They just say that it might snow and the whole city shuts down,” Sheri Sable told The Associated Press as she walked her dogs in a slight drizzle in Washington on Thursday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Slideshow: Snow blankets Midwest, heads east

Jim Mone / AP

A storm system stretching from the Dakotas to the Florida Panhandle is predicted to bring snow to the mid-Atlantic states.

Launch slideshow

Related: 

Full coverage from weather.com

Snowstorm misses Washington, pounds areas west of nation's capital

This story was originally published on Thu Mar 7, 2013 7:07 AM EST

Parts of New England braced for snow on Saturday, with Boston prepared for a mix of snow and freezing rain in the third storm to rake the area in three weekends. The mix will likely make a messy end for a powerful storm system that headed eastward after slamming much of the Midwest with snow earlier this week, meteorologists said.

As many as 1 to 3 inches of snow could fall in Boston, with the heaviest snowfall expected between Saturday night and Sunday morning.

“I’m not thrilled that we’ve got more snow coming this weekend. I’ve had enough of winter,” Boston area resident John Bonnanzio, 54, told Reuters.

But other residents were ready to make the most of the coming storm.

“I’m excited,” Jesse Beecher, 29, told Reuters. “I went out skiing in the streets during the last one, and I’ll do the same thing again.”

A winter weather advisory was set to go into effect for much of the region starting at 3 p.m. on Saturday.

The storm system, which left much of the Midwest buried under snow, has the potential to cause flooding in the southeastern United States and was expected to bring precipitation to much of the east coast, including New York City and north into Massachusetts. The Weather Channel said parts of southern Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and northern and central Massachusetts could see up to 6 to 9 inches of snow over the weekend.

The massive storm system resulted in 570 flight cancellations on Friday, including 127 at Chicago’s O’Hare airport, Reuters said.

Meanwhile, a storm in the Pacific Northwest was expected to dump 2 to 3 feet of snow on the Cascade Mountains through the weekend, according to the National Weather Service. The weather service issued winter storm warnings for parts of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Utah on Friday.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Related:

• Storm expected to give New England third straight weekend of snow
• Storms to dump snow on New England, heavy rain on Southeast, forecasters warn

Parts of New England were expected to be hit by heavy snowfalls while heavy rain was threatening to cause flash floods in parts of the Southeast, forecasters warned.

The National Weather Service  issued a winter storm watch at about 10 p.m. ET Friday for southern New Hampshire, northern Rhode Island, and much of central, northern and eastern Massachusetts, including Boston.

It said the area could be hit by up to 8 inches of snow, which some parts potentially getting nearly 10 inches.

Read more from weather.com

“Snow will overspread the region tomorrow [Saturday] afternoon. The heaviest snow will occur tomorrow night into Sunday morning, when 1 to 2 inch per hour snowfall rates will be possible,” the NWS said.

“The biggest concern is that this will be a heavy wet snow. This will bring the potential for downed tree limbs and scattered power outages. Untreated roads are also expected to become snow covered and slippery,” the weather service said.

Temperatures were expected to be in the lower 30s with winds of 5-10 mph.

“Anyone traveling in the next 24 to 36 hours should monitor later forecasts and be prepared to modify travel plans should winter weather develop,” the NWS notice added.

NBC.Connecticut.com meteorologist Bob Maxon said the state would also see snow and rain from the weekend storm. He expected up to 4 inches of snow or more in the Litchfield Hills and northeast Connecticut.

South of Connecticut, rain was expected to be the problem.

"Days of heavy rainfall could lead to river flooding and flash flooding in the Southeast," the NWS said.

At 5:20 a.m. ET, the weather service issued a flash flood warning for Geneva and Houston counties in southeast Alabama, saying heavy showers and thunderstorms had been detected.

Weather.com reported that it expected that an areas from New York City to Philadelphia would “primarily” see rain.

It said it expected 2 to 5 inches of snow in Boston, adding “the amount of rain versus snow that falls will dictate whether snowfall amounts are on the higher or lower end of this range.”

The storm hit parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan on Friday.

In Minnesota alone, the State Patrol said there were 124 crashes during the morning commute, killing one driver and injuring 23, NBC affiliate KARE in Minneapolis reported.

Pacific Northwest storm
Meanwhile, a storm in the Pacific Northwest was expected to bring strong winds through Saturday and dump 2 to 3 feet of snow on the Cascade Mountains through Monday, the NWS said.

“Considerable blowing and drifting snow and an increased avalanche risk are expected in the high terrain for portions of the region,” it said.

The NWS issued winter storm warnings for parts of Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Utah.

"Periods of heavy snowfall" were also expected Saturday in parts of Hawaii, according to another winter storm warning notice.

Up to 12 inches were possible at high altitudes in an area including Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, with temperatures in the mid-20s to mid-30s.

Related:

PhotoBlog: Winter whiteout slams central US

This story was originally published on Sat Feb 23, 2013 4:14 AM EST

A winter storm initially expected to produce blizzard-like conditions in parts of New England brought moderate snow and strong winds to the region on Sunday.

Forecasters had said up to a foot of snow would be possible in areas of New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts, but the storm was moving out of the region Sunday afternoon after less than half that amount had accumulated.

For southeastern New England, including Boston, the snow totaled 3 to 5 inches, Boston.com reported. The snow and ice in the city caused flights arriving to Logan International Airport to be delayed an average of 52 minutes. 

Meanwhile, arctic air and heavy winds meant below-freezing temperatures in New England and wind chills in the single digits across the whole eastern U.S. over the weekend, weather.com reported.

Janet S. Carter / The Free Press via AP

Snow flurries shroud Washington Street in Kinston, N.C., on Saturday.

“What will be noteworthy today are the winds which will be especially strong along the coast,” Meteorologist David Epstein said. “At times some coastal areas south of Boston could see wind gusts hit 50 miles per hour.”

The Weather Channel’s Dr. Greg Postel warned the strong winds could cause scattered power outages throughout the region.

The snow that was hitting the New England area came a day after the moving storm brought 2-3 inches of snow to the Carolinas.

Much of New England just finished digging out after a historic winter storm that dumped 30 inches of snow on parts of Massachusetts and even more in Connecticut.

NBC News' Alastair Jamieson contributed to this report.

This story was originally published on Sat Feb 16, 2013 6:25 PM EST

Winslow Townson / AP

People dig out their cars in Boston, on Sunday, Feb. 10. A howling storm across the Northeast left the New York-to-Boston corridor shrouded in 1 to 3 feet of snow Saturday, stranding motorists on highways overnight and piling up drifts so high that some homeowners couldn't get their doors open.

The snow-weary Northeast is about to get hit again. And again.

Forecasters say parts of New England — still digging out from an epic snowstorm last weekend — should get several inches of snow Wednesday night, according to weather.com. New York and Philadelphia could see 1 to 3 inches.

Temperatures are not expected to be low enough to cause significant travel problems, said Tom Moore, a meteorologist for The Weather Channel.

More coverage from weather.com

Then, this weekend, a second round: A weather system should deliver light snow to the Great Lakes, Ohio Valley and Appalachians on Friday, then dust northern New England on Saturday.

Earlier forecast models suggested that the weekend storm could sock the Northeast with high wind and heavy snow, but those models now think a low-pressure system will stay far enough offshore to keep that from happening.

The blizzard last weekend left at least 12 people dead, buried cars along highways, mangled travel across the country and dumped more than 3 feet of snow in some places.

It’s still causing problems: Just Wednesday morning, snow mounds and icy roads slowed firefighters’ response to a house fire in Hampton, Conn., fire officials told NBCConnecticut.com.

The family in the 3,000-square-foot home made it out safely, but it took firefighters six hours to put down the blaze. And a firefighter slipped on ice and broke his ankle.

EARLIER: Northeast stirs back to life after weekend blizzard

Craig Ruttle / AP

Cars are buried by snow near Hamden, Conn., Sunday, in the aftermath of the winter storm that hammered New England.

Updated at 8:42 a.m. ET: The Northeast began stirring back to life Monday after being buried under a record-setting winter storm that left at least 12 people dead, buried cars and effectively closed some of the nation’s busiest airports for large parts of the weekend.

Highways that had been clogged with stuck cars reopened, and airports reported few cancellations as crews labored to move more than 3 feet of snow in some areas, restore power to hundreds of thousands of customers and open subways, bus routes and commuter railroads.

At least 12 people died in New York and New England, according to The Weather Channel –- five in Connecticut, three each in New York and Massachusetts, and one in Maine.

As of 8:40 a.m. ET Monday, airlines were reporting only 114 cancellations in the United States, many of them unrelated to the storm, according to FlightAware.com. That was a stark difference from Friday and Saturday, when thousands of flights were cancelled, mostly involving Boston and New York airports.

Slideshow: Northeast storm

Nicolaus Czarnecki / Zuma Press

A dangerous winter storm churned Friday into the Northeast as forecasters warned of a whiteout.

Launch slideshow

Power was being restored at a relatively fast clip, with outages in the Northeast below 150,000 early Monday, The Associated Press reported. About 650,000 customers were without power during parts of the weekend, but states lent help to each other, sending crews where they were most needed.

In New York, where the Big Apple had a comparatively minor snowfall but Long Island was hammered by high winds and heavy snow, Gov. Andrew Cuomo sent more than one-third of the state’s snow-removal equipment to hard-hit Suffolk Country.

On Sunday more than 675 pieces of snow-removal equipment and 975 people were working to clear roads and open the way for commuters to get back to work Monday, Cuomo said in a statement.

“Suffolk County has not seen a winter storm like [this] in years, and the massive amount of snow left behind effectively shut down the entire region,” the governor said.

In Massachusetts, Gov. Deval Patrick ordered the reopening of state offices for Monday, just two days after declaring a state of emergency as some communities were buried under more than 3 feet of snow. Boston got two feet of snow, and hurricane-strength wind gusts to the east of the city.

Connecticut, which saw the heaviest of the snow, still had considerable work to do Monday. Gov. Dannel Malloy kept nonessential state employees home.

“I understand that everyone wants to get back to normal as quickly as possible,” Malloy said Sunday. “Crews are working around the clock to accomplish that goal. But the last thing we need at this point is a typical morning rush-hour commute. Traffic build-up will only delay the effort to clear our roads."

Snow totals in parts of Connecticut were the storm’s worst. Hampden got 40 inches, Milford 38, and New Haven 34.

Connecticut was among the five states that declared a state of emergency, the others being Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York and Maine.

Major cities appeared set to get back to business Monday, though. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority said its services would resume, albeit with “significant delays expected” and buses running on snow routes.

In New York, the Metropolitan Transit Authority said subways and local and express buses would operate as normal Monday morning. Extra trains were put on some major commuter lines to help get workers back to the city.

As the Northeast shovels and plows, more could be on the way. Another winter storm heading into the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest could bring snow later Monday to parts of northern New England, particularly Maine, according to The Weather Channel.

Related:

Safe for Northeast commuters to return to work?

More from The Weather Channel

Updated at 4:20 a.m. ET: A powerful winter storm pounded the Northeast Saturday, with gusting winds and heavy snow causing power failures for hundreds of thousands of people, dozens of accidents and fuel shortages at gas stations. 

At least one death was confirmed, a snow-related car accident in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

By 4:20 a.m. ET Saturday, 26 inches of snow had fallen at Hamden, Conn., with 22.4 inches at Upton, N.Y., and 15.3 in Portland, Maine, weather.com reported. New York City's Central park had 6.3 inches.

Blizzard warnings were issued for the New York City metro area, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, coastal New Hampshire and coastal Maine, weather.com added.

Forecasters said they expected Massachusetts to get the most snowfall, with an accumulation of up to 3 feet in some spots. The worst snowfall on record in Boston was a 27.5-inch blast a decade ago.

Coastal residents were warned that the winds could top 70 mph. Those living on north- and east-facing shorelines from Boston south to Cape Cod Bay were told to prepare for tides 2 to 4 feet above normal.

"Coastal flooding is expected on the Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts coastlines," the National Weather Service said.

"I'm really nervous," Kathy Niznansky, a 65-year-old teacher in coastal Fairfield, Conn. told The Associated Press. Niznansky is still recovering from flooding from Superstorm Sandy which arrived on her birthday and knocked her out of her house near the beach for two months. "Now I'm really worried about this tide tonight. I just don't want any more flooding."

In Massachusetts, gusts over 50 mph were reported in Boston and over 60 mph on Nantucket Island. Winds up to 75 mph were possible in Provincetown, forecasters said.

Police said hundreds of cars were stuck on the Long Island Expressway, NBC weatherman Al Roker said in a message on Twitter.

The winter storm gathered strength as two weather systems — a so-called clipper pattern sweeping across the Midwest and a band of rain from the South — converged over the Northeast early Friday.

By late Friday, the storm had arrived in earnest and was expected to pummel New England through Saturday and last as long as Sunday farther north.

Governors of New York, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island declared states of emergency. 

More than 800 National Guard soldiers and airmen were activated in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York to provide roadway support, emergency transportation and back-up for first responders, the Department of Defense said Friday evening, while governors in the region warned people to get home and be prepared for power outages.

Airlines canceled more than 3,000 flights on Friday, Boston closed its subway, Amtrak suspended some service, and cities across the Northeast prepared to deploy an armada of snowplows and salt-spreading trucks.

More than half a million people were without power, including a whopping 389,000 customers in Massachusetts, 177,000 in Rhode Island and 35,000 in Connecticut, and more power failures were expected overnight. 

For people in the blizzard’s path, forecasters and authorities had a clear message: Stay home.

Driving bans
Governors in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts announced restrictions on driving.

In the most sweeping ban, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick ordered all non-essential vehicles off the roads by 4 p.m. and said people should brace to be snowed in for two days. He said the storm was "profoundly different" from others the state has endured in recent years.

Gov. Dannel Malloy of Connecticut banned car traffic on limited-access highways starting at 4 p.m. State police reported nearly 100 minor accidents across the state by Friday afternoon.

"If you don't currently have a reason to be on the road, if you're not an emergency personnel that's required to report to work somewhere, stay home," Malloy said at a state armory news conference. "This is it. Things are starting to accumulate."

In the Poughkeepsie, N.Y. crash, a car driven by an 18-year-old female went out of control in the snow and struck Muril M. Hancock, 74, who was walking near the shoulder, police said. Hancock died from his injuries at the hospital.

The eastern part of Connecticut was experiencing white-out conditions late into the evening, the state's emergency operations center reported, and even snowplows were immobilized because of the weather.

Several motorists were reported stranded on snowed-in highways and interstates, but no injuries had been reported. Still, emergency crews were unable to respond due to the severe conditions.

A 19-car pileup on Interstate 295 in Falmouth, Maine, was blamed on the storm. Police said there were minor injuries.

Elsewhere, Rhode Island police asked people for loaner snowmobiles, and out-of-state utility crews headed for Connecticut to help.

Full coverage from The Weather Channel
Watch live video of the Northeast blizzard
 Sandy survivors: It's like a repeat 'nightmare'  

Airline cancellations piled up all morning. Almost 3,000 flights were scrapped for Friday and more than 1,000 more for Saturday, according to FlightAware.com.

At the major airports in New York and New England, most major airlines said they would shut down completely Friday afternoon.

Schools were closed in Boston and for most of New England on Friday. Patrick ordered non-essential state workers to stay home Friday and encouraged private employers to do the same.

In New York, the transit agency added more than 20 afternoon trains on its Metro-North commuter line from Grand Central Terminal to get people out of the city before the worst hit.

The Metro-North suspended service Friday night due to the storm. The Long Island Rail Road shut down service east of Speonk about 9 p.m.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned people to stay in and to use public transportation if they had to go out, although even that carried the possibility of disruptions. The city had 250,000 tons of salt at the ready for the roads.

He encouraged New Yorkers to stay in and cook a meal or read a good book.

"This is a very serious storm, and we should treat it that way," said Tom Prendergast, president of the agency that runs New York subways and buses.

The weather service warned that the combination of heavy snow and high winds would limit visibility and cause whiteout conditions at times.

"Those venturing outdoors may become lost or disoriented," the weather service said in an advisory issued for the Boston area.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Related:

The Weather Channel live stream

The Weather Channel live blog

State-by-state impact of the storm

Current conditions

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Updated at 11 p.m. ET: Be jealous, Midwesterners and Northeasterners: On Tuesday, Phoenix broke a record with highs of 81 degrees. Wednesday's forecast calls for 82 with a smattering of clouds.

Meanwhile, the Midwest continues to shiver under some of its coldest weather in years, and New England braced for temperatures as low as minus 50 degrees including the wind chill factor and up to a foot of snow.

An “Alberta Clipper” drawing arctic air southward from Canada has brought gusty winds and snow to a long line of states atop the country from North Dakota to northern Maine, creating treacherous driving conditions.

Temperatures plummeted below zero by double digits in the western Great Lakes region and northern Maine, and dozens of degrees below zero when the wind chill was taken into account, according to the National Weather Service.

More from The Weather Channel

Parts of North Dakota, Minnesota and Maine were expected to see wind chills approaching 50 degrees below zero, according to the National Weather Service.

Major Great Lakes cities such as Chicago and Detroit struggled just to hit the teens Tuesday, and lake-effect snows were likely to continue in areas south of all five major lakes, Weather.com reported.

Cities along the I-95 corridor from Boston to Washington, D.C. had high temperatures only in the 20s Tuesday.

In New York, the peak of the “cold wave” were expected to chill the tri-state area Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, as low temperatures plunged into the low single digits throughout the area, NBCNewYork.com reported.

Forecasters said wind chills below zero were possible for Wednesday morning, so it could feel like negative 25 degrees outside, NBCNewYork.com reported.

The cold weather has already been blamed for at least one death as vehicles crashed in difficult conditions.

In Ohio alone, at least three interstate pileups injured dozens and left a 12-year-old girl dead.

Parts of Connecticut were hit with snow, as were areas north of New York City and along the coast, according to NBCNewYork.com.

NBCConnecticut.com said most of the state got a coating of snow.

NBC 10 Philadelphia

A multiple-vehicle accident tied up the Strawberry Mansion Bridge in Philadelphia.

As a low-pressure system off the New England coasts pulls the cold blast eastward, northern Massachusetts and parts of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine could see up to a foot of snow, a difficult Tuesday morning commute and uncomfortable wind chills, The Weather Channel reported.

In Pennsylvania, icy roads caused by the rush of bitter wind contributed to accident after accident, along with road closures and warnings to drivers to stay home or be extremely careful, NBCPhiladelphia.com reported.

Though much of the snow is forecast to move out to sea by Tuesday afternoon, the cold weather doesn’t appear to be ready to leave.

High temperatures across the Midwest and Northeast appear set to remain below freezing -- in most cases in the teens or below --until the weekend at least, the weather service predicts.

NBC News staff writer Isolde Raftery contributed reporting.

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