Nearly 80 million people along the East Coast are bracing for a powerful Arctic outbreak set to grip the region this weekend.

Extreme Cold Warnings are in effect across large portions of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, with Sunday morning expected to be the coldest of the season in the Northeast. Wind chills had already plunged to dangerous levels early Saturday from the Great Lakes through the Carolinas, with even colder conditions forecast.

As the bitter cold moves in, snowfall is tapering off across coastal New England. An inverted trough lingering over the region produced highly localized bursts of heavy snow, with some bands dumping as much as 2.5 inches per hour.

Temperatures across much of the Northeast are expected to fall into the single digits, while strong winds will drive wind chills well below zero throughout the region.

Extreme Cold Warnings remain in place for wide swaths of the Northeast, including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont, as forecasters warn of life-threatening cold conditions.