Weather experts are forecasting a significant drop in temperatures across much of the United States, ushering in the season’s first snowstorms for numerous regions.

This past weekend, parts of the northern Midwest already experienced heavy snowfall, and similar weather conditions are anticipated to sweep through the central Plains, Ohio Valley, mid-Atlantic, and New England starting early next week.

In a related incident, a massive 45-vehicle collision occurred on Interstate 70, roughly 10 miles from Terre Haute, Indiana, attributed to the snow.

During the incident, several vehicles skidded across the eastbound lanes, ending up in the median, on the grass, and even veering toward westbound traffic.

The approaching storms are likely to disrupt both ground and air travel, and some schools in affected areas may be compelled to close temporarily.

‘My thinking is that the cold the first week of December is the appetizer and the main course will be in mid-December,’ climatologist Judah Cohen, a research scientist at MIT, told USA Today.

He further claimed that his computer model is forecasting ‘that the most expansive region of most likely extreme cold on Earth stretches from the Canadian Plains to the US East Coast in the third week of December’.

A ‘polar vortex’, or a large, low-pressure cold air system, will remain up above Canada for the next seven to ten days, said Weather Trader meteorologist Ryan Maue in a Substack post.

A couple walks their dog in Chicago, Illinois, on November 29, as snow blankets the city

Field crew member clears snow off the field during the game between the Northwestern Wildcats and the Illinois Fighting Illini at Memorial Stadium on Saturday

Icicles form along a pier at Chicago’s Loyola Beach. More cold weather is predicted for the coming weeks

Forecasted temperatures throughout the United States for the first day of December are shown

Determining where snow will fall and how much is a bit trickier, given that precipitation cannot be predicted more than three days in advance.

According to an AccuWeather forecast, a storm will form along a boundary where expanding cold air and warm air will have begun to meet from Monday to Tuesday night.

The storm will bring a mix of snow and sleet to Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, along with parts of West Virginia, Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Parts of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina will likely also have to deal with ice buildup on top of snowfall.

The southern states – as far east as coastal Virginia, as far south as northern Florida and as far inland as eastern Texas – are expected to be hit with significant rainfall.

By Tuesday night, New York and New England will receive snow, with most areas getting from one to six inches.

The Catskills of New York, the Berkshires of Connecticut and Massachusetts and southeastern Maine could see a maximum of 12 inches of snow.

In cities such as New York City and Philadelphia, the snow will eventually turn to rain on Tuesday, potentially leading to slippery roads.

If a second storm blows down cold air from the Hudson Valley, New York could be in for even more snow than previously thought.

These storms in the US could bring the lowest temperatures recorded since last February.