It's an unusual time of year for tornado warnings, but given the warm temperatures in the southeastern U.S., forecasters are warning residents to beware of strong wind gusts overnight and into Wednesday. 

The National Weather Service says the following areas are most at risk: Much of Arkansas, southern Illinois, extreme southwestern Indiana, western Kentucky, northern Louisiana, parts of southern Missouri, parts of northern Mississippi, extreme southeastern Oklahoma, western Tennessee, extreme northeastern Texas. 

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Additionally, The Weather Channel gave a 50 percent chance of seeing a tornado in Alabama.

Temperatures are about 22 to 26 degrees above average, according to weather.com, and damaging wind gusts of 70 to 80 mph are predicted south from Biloxi, Miss. east to the Virginia. On the periphery of those wind gusts, isolated, spin-up tornadoes may form.  

The Weather Channel warns that the combination of strong winds -- in some areas up to 150 mph -- could result in straight-line wind damage and prime conditions for tornadoes to form. 

The weather service said the threat for severe thunderstorms will increase through Tuesday night in advance of a strong cold front moving across the central U.S. 

State and local emergency managers are on watch, the weather service said.

Capping off a brutal week of frigid conditions and subzero wind chills, residents across much of the country on Friday were still experiencing some of the coldest temperatures in years — with southern states getting a rare icy blast.

Peak temperatures from the Northeast to the Midwest were slated to range from single digits to the 30s, and forecasters said freezing air temperatures and the chance of precipitation could mean snow in both regions.

"This is actually quite an impressive mass of cold air," Richard Castro, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service told NBCChicago.com.

By mid-afternoon on Friday, Pennsylvania was feeling the first of a "widespread storm, impacting the entire state," said state's transportation department spokesman Steve Chizmar.

Snow was falling over most of the state, and forecasters predicted a total of 1 to 4 inches through Saturday morning, while transportation department crews stayed busy plowing and salting the roads.

Hundreds of schools in the state dismissed classes early Friday.

Only a light dusting, if any accumulation, was expected in New York City, where real-feel temperatures were below zero Friday morning, NBCNewYork.com reported.

Slideshow: Deep Freeze

Timothy A. Clary / AFP - Getty Images

A man photographs the fountain at Bryant Park in New York on Friday as the arctic air has turned the fountain into an ice sculpture.

Launch slideshow

In the Midwest, one of the first snowfalls of the season in Chicago created a few slick spots on the roads Friday morning, causing at least a dozen accidents, including an eight-vehicle crash, NBCChicago.com reported. Only minor injuries had been reported.

Though little snow accumulated it was still record breaking. The 1.1 inches recorded Friday morning broke the city’s 335-day stretch of no more than an inch of snow accumulation in one day.

The National Weather Service had winter weather advisories in effect for the eastern seaboard from North Carolina to southern New Jersey, and issued blizzard warnings for northern Georgia.

Parts of Kentucky were reporting as much as half inch of ice accumulation, Weather.com reported. Slick roads in the southeast of the state were making driving hazardous, causing more than 100 accidents in Pulaski County alone, it said.

Tennessee was also slick with ice in the east, and reported some power outages, while freezing rain caused a number of school systems in central and southern Kentucky to cancel classes, according to WLEX-TV.

Because cold temperatures can be dangerous, officials advised residents to heed cold-weather tips, including wearing gloves, wearing a mouth covering to protect the lungs from bitter cold air, layering loose-fitting, warm clothing and wearing a hat to retain body heat.

Animal advocates also urged pet owners to only take elderly dogs, puppies and short-haired dogs outside when it is absolutely necessary. If a dog whines frequently or keeps lifting its paws up while on a walk, it may need boots. Cat owners should keep their animals inside at all times in such bitter cold, NBCChicago.com reported.

The forecast for next week called for some relief from the arctic temperatures of late, beginning with sunny skies and temperatures hitting the mid-40s to 50s by the middle of the week. 

Kari Huus, NBC Staff Writer, contributed to this report.

Courtesy of Jillian Manuel

A makeshift memorial was set up near the site where Mollie Judith Olgin, 19, and Kristene Chapa, 18, were shot in a nature reserve in Portland, Tex.

The lone survivor of a shooting that left her girlfriend dead in a South Texas park says she has learned that “life is so fragile” and she thanks those who are praying for her, noting it has sped up her recovery, in some of the first comments posted to her Facebook page since the attack three months ago.

Kristene Chapa, 18, was shot in the head along with her girlfriend, Mollie Judith Olgin, 19, on June 22 in Portland, Tex. The couple had been spending some time in a nature reserve near Corpus Christi before going to see a movie on the night they were attacked, Olgin’s father, Mario, told local television station kiiitv.com.

A couple found the pair the next day in the park. Olgin, a first-year university student living in Corpus Christi, died; Chapa, of Sinton, was alive and rushed to an area hospital.

"Today marks 3 months since my accident. I've learned life is so fragile and cherish the people you have in your life love them don't take things for granted and buy pepper spray! they deserve it!" Chapa penned Sunday in a Facebook post.

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"I love that people pray for me," she also noted. "I really think that's why I'm recovering so fast."

Police got 100 leads in the case after Chapa, who is recovering in a rehabilitation facility, helped them produce a sketch of the attacker, NBC local affiliate, kristv.com reported in mid-September. The suspect is described as a thin white man with a scruffy beard, in his 20s, weighing 140 pounds and standing 5-feet-8-inches tall.

On her Facebook page, Chapa complained about the food at rehabilitation but also said of therapy: "one step at a time" and "always remember there is someone worse off."

A state forensics lab in Austin will compare DNA evidence collected from the crime scene with mouth swabs that police have taken from each person they’ve interviewed who doesn’t have an alibi, kristv.com reported.

But the lab is dealing with a lengthy caseload, and it’s not clear when police will have the results, according to the television station.

Police recovered a bullet casing from a large-caliber gun at the scene, leading investigators to believe the shootings occurred where the pair was found. Two witnesses said they heard what could have been gunshots or firecrackers just before midnight on June 22 but did not report it at the time.

On Sunday, Chapa posted the lyrics to a Kenny Chesney song on her Facebook page from "Who You'd Be Today," which is about a person who "died too young."

"I still need time but I am happy," she wrote. "I'm moving on."

That seemed to include a new girlfriend, with Chapa noting in early September that she was in a relationship with a new woman.

"I know people deal with things different and I'm not gonna sit in my room and cry over what happened," she wrote. "I was heartbroken but I'm not gonna be single for the rest of my life ... she's in my heart but I needed something else. I wanted a girl to be there for me and understand what I'm going through ..."

Portland Police Chief Randy Wright has previously said that there was no evidence to indicate the attacks were motivated by the couple’s relationship. Calls placed by NBC News early Monday seeking comment to Wright and Hilario Chapa, Kristene’s brother, were not immediately returned.

Courtesy of Hilario Chapa

Siblings Patricia Martinez, left, Hilario Chapa, and Mary Kristene Chapa on April 28, 2012. Kristene Chapa is recovering from being shot in the head on June 22 in a South Texas park. Her girlfriend, who was also shot in the head, died in the attack.

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HENRYVILLE, Ind. -- The search for tornado victims was wrapping up Sunday, but the cleanup was only beginning, especially along a 52-mile-long stretch in Indiana where the scene was best described as "total devastation."

With a light snow and cold temperatures adding to the misery in places like hard-hit Henryville, Indiana officials were able to announce that no one else was still reported missing in the state where 12 died. Kentucky was hardest hit, with 20 deaths.

The next phase -- cleanup and providing security -- is just starting, Indiana State Police Sgt. Jerry Gooden told NBC's TODAY show.

"We’ve got about a four or five county area here, about a 50-mile stretch of area … that's total destruction," he said, referring to the fact that a twister with 175 mph winds was on the ground for 52 miles. A second, smaller twister on Friday in the area added to the destruction. 

Crews worked to move downed power lines and clear debris, and residents began putting tarps over torn apart homes to prevent further damage.

Meanwhile, the more fortunate brought donations including diapers, blankets and food to area churches.

"That's what people do. It's no biggie. It's because we care. They are our neighbors," said Brenda Parson as she brought a carload of donations to the St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Henryville.

In one sign of hope amid the destruction, a 2-year-old girl, orphaned by the tornado, was found alive but badly hurt in a field in southeast Indiana miles from her home after a twister cut through the area.

How to help tornado victims

The toddler, who remained in critical condition in a Kentucky hospital, was with members of her extended family. But her parents, a 2-month-old sister and a 3-year-old brother, were all killed, said Cis Gruebbel, a spokeswoman for Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville.

The violent storms raised fears that 2012 will be another bad year for tornadoes after 550 deaths were blamed on twisters last year, the deadliest year in nearly a century, according to the National Weather Service.

In the northern Kentucky town of Crittenden, where tornadoes ripped roofs off houses and damaged apartment blocks, low-security prisoners in orange jackets were brought in to help with clean-up efforts.

In another hard-hit Kentucky town, 48-year-old carpenter Kevin Stambaugh described how he survived a twister that killed his two neighbors, who he said were found dead huddled together in their kitchen. He said he also lost 25 horses in the storm.

"The windows were shattered and shards of glass were swirling around near my head," he told Reuters outside a church in the town of Morning View, adding that wind had pushed him down the stairs to his basement and pinned him between a bar and a wall.

Slideshow: Early season tornado outbreak

View images from the destruction.

Launch slideshow

At least 300 people came to the Piner Baptist Church, advertised as a relief center, to volunteer after the storm.

"Being from here, born and raised, the hardest thing is knowing that the houses I grew up seeing every day are gone. There are no words," said volunteer Amy Heeger, 38, who works for a car auction company but headed for the church to help out.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Updated at 3:20 a.m. ET
HENRYVILLE, Ind. -- As tornado-hit communities searched for victims and removed debris on Saturday, they also got word that their misery isn't over: A cold front moving in from the north is likely to dump snow on the hardest hit regions on Sunday, the National Weather Service said in an alert.

A mix of rain and snow will "quickly change over to all snow late Sunday night," the service warned, in parts of Indiana and Kentucky, where tens of thousands were without power after Friday's twisters that killed at least 39 people, injured hundreds and destroyed or damaged hundreds of homes.

Temperatures by Sunday night in places like hard-hit Henryville, Ind., are likely to dip below 30 degrees F, a problem for anyone without heat.

On Saturday, several small twisters were reported in southeast Georgia that took down trees but caused no injuries. Parts of northern Florida were under a tornado watch.

Friday's twisters crushed entire blocks of homes, ripped power lines from broken poles and tossed cars, school buses and tractor-trailers onto roadways.

"It's all gone," Andy Bell said of a neighborhood in Henryville, as he guarded a friend's demolished service garage, not far from where a school bus stuck out from the side of a restaurant and a parking lot where a small classroom chair jutted from a car window.

"It was beautiful," he said, looking around. "And now it's just gone. I mean, gone."

NBC News reported that, as of 1:20 a.m. ET Sunday, there were 37 deaths confirmed by authorities: 20 from Kentucky, 12 from Indiana, three from Ohio, one from Alabama and one from Georgia.

In Kentucky, where some 300 people were injured and 17,000 lost power, the National Guard and state police searched wreckage for an unknown number of missing.

In Indiana, authorities searched rural communities that officials said "are completely gone."

One person was known to have died in hard-hit Henryville, a town of about 2,000 near Louisville, Ky., and the birthplace of Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Col. Harland Sanders.

Survivors walked down littered streets with shopping carts full of water and food, handing it out to anyone in need. Hundreds of firefighters and police zipped around a town where few recognizable structures remained; all of Henryville's schools were destroyed.

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Susie Renner, 54, said she saw two tornadoes barreling down on Henryville within minutes of each other. The first was brown from being filled with debris; the second was black.

"I'm a storm chaser," Renner said, "and I have never been this frightened before."

Friday's outbreak came two days after tornadoes killed 13 people in the Midwest and South, and forecasters at the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center had said the day would be one of a handful this year that warranted its highest risk level. By 10 p.m., the weather service had issued 269 tornado warnings. Only 189 warnings were issued in all of February.

"We knew this was coming. We were watching the weather like everyone else," said Danny Rodden, sheriff of Indiana's Clark County. "This was the worst case scenario. There's no way you can prepare for something like this."

2012 tornado disaster relief: How to help

The storms raised fears that 2012 will be another bad year after 550 deaths were blamed on twisters last year, the deadliest year in nearly a century, according to the National Weather Service.

The highest death tolls last year were from an April outbreak in Alabama and Mississippi that claimed 364 lives, and from a May tornado in Joplin, Mo., that killed 161 people. 

Nearly 100 tornadoes were reported on Friday, but the final number will be smaller once duplicate reports are filtered out.

On Friday, 14 people were reported killed in Indiana -- including four in Chelsea, where a man, woman and their 4-year-old great-grandchild died in one house. Tony Williams, owner of the Chelsea General Store, said the child and mother were huddled in a basement when the storm hit and sucked the 4-year-old out her hands. The mother survived, but her 70-year-old grandparents were upstairs; both died.

"They found them in the field, back behind the house," Williams said.

Two people also died farther north in Holton, where it appeared a tornado cut a diagonal swath down the town's tiny main drag, demolishing a cinderblock gas station in one spot and leaving a tiny white church intact down the road.

Slideshow: Early season tornado outbreak

Severe storms and tear through the midwest and southern states.

Launch slideshow

"We are going to continue to hit every county road that we know of that there are homes on and search those homes," said Indiana State Police Sgt. Jerry Goodin. "We have whole communities and whole neighborhoods that are completely gone."

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Tornadoes were reported in at least six Ohio cities and towns, including the village of Moscow, where a council member found dead in her home was one of at least three people killed in the state.

Several dozen homes were damaged, some stripped down to their foundations, and the Clermont County commissioners called a state of emergency for the first time in 15 years.

Severe winds also caused damage in Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee.

NBC News, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Updated at 6:30 p.m. ET: Damaging winds and at least one tornado struck the South on Friday as part of a large storm system moving across the eastern half of the country that dumped snow on the Midwest, the National Weather Service said.

Thunderstorms raked parts of Alabama and Georgia, then moved east toward the coast through the evening.

In South Carolina, a tornado touched down near the Lexington-Aiken county line and moved into Lexington County, The State newspaper reported on its website, citing the weather service. The State said the Lexington County Fire Service reported that trees were knocked down in the rural area and at least one house was damaged, but there were no injuries.

The Augusta Chronicle reported on its website that high winds downed trees and power lines in the region. Strong winds and large hail were reported in the Charlotte, N.C., area.

Two girls, ages 9 and 12, in North Carolina's Craven County reportedly suffered minor injuries when they were knocked to the ground by lightning after getting off their school bus, WCTI12.com reported. The ABC station's website said the girls were running from the bus to their front door when lightning struck nearby. The girls were up and walking around within minutes after an emergency services crew arrived, the website said.

Winds up to 60 to 70 miles an hour had been forecast, with the strongest gusts expected in parts of the Carolinas and southeast Virginia.

"Although we think there can be some isolated tornadoes, we don’t think that’s the primary threat for today," Steven Weiss, chief of the science support branch at the National Weather Service’s storm prediction center said earlier. "We think the primary threat is going to develop and become more of a wind damage threat as this strong cold front continues to progress eastward of the Appalachians and have new storm development along it." 

By evening, Doppler radar at NBC station WCNC of Raleigh, N.C., showed heavy thunderstorm bands slipping toward the Atlantic Ocean.

Dozens of homes were damaged Wednesday night in a tornado near Rome, Ga., knocking out power and forcing schools to close, local media reported, citing authorities. When asked earlier if Friday's storms would be a repeat of earlier this week, Weiss said: "We hope not."

"For the time being, there may be some locally heavy rain just because there’s a continuation of storms one after the other moving across -- particularly parts of east-central Georgia into central South Carolina and moving into southeast North Carolina at this time," he said.

Part of larger system
The wet weather in the South was part of the "same large storm system that is moving across the eastern half of the country. The northern end of the storm system is associated with colder air and that’s where we’re getting the heavier snows up in that area, particularly across some of the Great Lakes region at this time," Weiss said.

Meteorologist Tim Ballisty had predicted that Chicago could receive "a half foot or more" of snow.

"On Thursday into Friday, look for a stripe of snow to lay down from the Dakotas into Iowa, northern Illinois, far northern Indiana and lower Michigan," he added. "The bulk of the heaviest snow will fall south of Milwaukee -- closer to the Wisconsin/Illinois border."

But NBCChicago.com reported that Chicago largely avoided snowfall, although some of the city's northern suburbs got up to 6 inches, and the most snow -- 8.5 inches -- fell in city of Cary, near to the Wisconsin state line.

The storm also dropped several inches of snow over parts of North and South Dakota on Thursday with some places getting more than a foot of snow.

“This is not unusual to see a storm like this toward the end of February,” said Weiss, noting “we’re certainly not out of winter yet” though there hasn't been a lot of storms this year.

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