Some 50 million people are under winter weather warnings as the first winter storm of the new year is slated to begin Saturday, according to the National Weather Service, producing hazardous travel conditions, multiple days of heavy snow, ice and potentially record-setting low temperatures in the midwest, south and east.

In fact, the NWS has issued a winter weather advisory for parts of the lower elevations overnight through Friday. This is the result of a clipper system quickly dropping in out of the Midwest. Typically, these systems are pretty moisture-staved, and this one won't be any different.

The winter weather advisory runs until 1 a.m. Saturday for southwest Lower Michigan. This again doesn’t mean the snow will end at that time. You could look for an extension of the advisory into Saturday morning.

What States Will Be Most Impacted By The Winter Storm? While the eastern half of the U.S. is expected to be engulfed in cold temperatures by next week, the NWS has forecast high c