As the southern anchor of brutal weather system stretching northeast into Canada, Nashville caught the brunt of a snow and ice storm overnight into early Saturday that sent cars and trucks spinning off highways and closing two interstates.
At one point, the Tennessee National Guard was called out with Humvees and a wrecker to held clear I-40, which was was shut down over a 12-mile stretch because of multi-vehicle accidents.
Downtown bridges were closed at one point in Nashville and jack-knifed tractor-trailers dotted interstates throughout the city and surrounding area.
Much of the state felt the effect of the winter storm. The National Weather Service said Jackson, Tenn., 130 miles southwest of Nashville, received more than 3 1/2 inches of snow.
Ice and snow were expected to remain a threat for much of the three-day weekend, prompting the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency to urge people to drive "only if absolutely necessary."
Forecasts for Saturday called for temperatures in central and eastern parts of Tennessee to hover around 20 degrees.
The unusually icy conditions that gripped parts of the state are part of a long system angling across the eastern U.S. that is expected to bring ice and heavy snow from the interior Mid-Atlantic to New England.
"Ice accumulations up to a quarter of an inch could cause power outages and create hazardous travel conditions," the National Weather Service said.
The greatest threat for freezing rain and ice accumulations was expected from
southern New Hampshire into eastern Maine: up to a tenth of an inch as the arrival of a strong cold front sends temperatures plummeting..
Forecasters said there could be up to to 12 inches of snow around the Great Lakes.
For the northern tier of the country, there was little relief in sight from the bitter cold. Bismarck. N.D., was already in the deep freeze at minus 9 degrees.
Across the northern Plains into Kansas and Missouri, high temperatures for Saturday were expected to average 15 to 20 degrees below average. And on Sunday, an Alberta Clipper — a fast-moving winter storm system barreling out of the Canadian Rockies — was on track to bring another round of snow and bitter cold.