A strong blast of air from the Arctic continued across much of the United States last weekend, leaving tens of millions of people suffering from bitter cold and dangerously icy conditions, while weather-related deaths rose to more than 70 on Monday, according to NBC News.
Heavy snow blanketed parts of the Northeast and Midwest on Friday, and falling temperatures overnight made roads slippery.
The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency announced two additional deaths Saturday in an incident on a highway in rural Leflore County, north of Jackson. Further details were initially not known.
The state's death toll reached at least eight people last week, with deaths attributed to road conditions and extreme cold.
Overall, the number of weather-related deaths in the U.S. has risen to at least 72 in recent days due to the wave of dangerous winter weather. Many of the deaths were reported in Tennessee and Oregon.
“Frostbite and hypothermia are likely with prolonged outdoor exposure,” emergency officials in Mississippi said Saturday.
Temperatures were expected to be in the single digits in Minneapolis and 10 degrees in Chicago and St. Louis, as wind chills felt temperatures as low as -30 degrees Fahrenheit in parts of the Northern Plains, according to the Weather Service National.