( CNN ) The first major storm of 2015 is amounting to just about every kind of ornery mess by Old Man Winter . This weekend 's storms will threaten havoc everywhere east of the Rockies with possible record cold , rain , snow and even tornadoes . Even West Texas was receiving heavy flurries Saturday , with up to 6 inches near Amarillo , where vehicles struggled to gain traction on ice and packed snow . In all , 55 million people in 24 states were facing winter storm watches , warnings and advisories Saturday . Freezing rain and snow is falling or is expected to descend on a vast swath from the Northern Rockies to the Great Plains toward New England . Storms are to soak the Southeast and may produce a few tornadoes and hail affecting 10 million people on the Gulf Coast from Louisiana to Alabama , CNN meteorologist Michael Guy said . The Northern Plains and surrounding states are expected to feel `` the coldest outbreak of arctic air '' since last winter , said another CNN meteorologist , Karen Maginnis . Wind-chill factors could become dangerous at minus-30 degrees in those plains . The National Weather Service predicted the storm `` will produce a variety of hazardous weather as it moves from the lower Mississippi Valley towards the Great Lakes this weekend . '' `` A swath of wintry precipitation is forecast from the Plains to the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic on Saturday , while severe storms and heavy rain are possible in parts of the Gulf Coast into the mid-South , '' the service added . More than half the country is to be whipsawed by a front moving up from the Gulf on Saturday and then by another down from Canada on Sunday , the service said . A Saturday storm is expected to deliver rain and thunderstorms from the lower Mississippi Valley to the Northeast . That moisture is expected to translate to snow in the upper Great Lakes and the Northeast . On Sunday , that rain is projected to intensify to a heavy downfall over the Mid-Atlantic coast and southern New England , the service said . Meanwhile , a Canadian cold front will drop over the Great Plains to the Gulf of Mexico by Sunday morning , the service projected . `` The system will produce snow over the Northern High Plains/Rockies to parts of the Upper Mississippi Valley that will move southward to the Central Rockies/Plains by Saturday evening , '' the service said . Even the Northwest will be affected and could receive moderate to heavy rain along the coast and snow in the intermountain regions , forecasters say .
`` The coldest outbreak of arctic air '' since last winter may threaten Northern Plains . Snow , freezing rain will fall in Northern Rockies , Great Plains , toward New England . Comment: