A major winter storm is expected to develop over Texas tonight, and intensify rapidly as it moves northeast into the Ohio Valley Tuesday night and Wednesday. The storm will eventually re-form off the mid-Atlantic or New England coast late Wednesday.

The storm has the potential to produce one to two feet of snow for a large swath of the central and northeastern states, from Oklahoma to Maine, with a swath of heavy freezing rain (quarter inch or more) to the south and east of the heavy snow area, including along the Mason-Dixon line north of Washington, D.C.

The storm prediction center has placed areas including Louisiana, Mississippi, Eastern Texas and Southeastern Arkansas under the risk for severe storms on Tuesday.

National Weather Service said a strong cold front has moved through South Texas early this morning. Temperatures will continue to slowly fall through the day across the region and then plummet tonight as the arctic air mass settles over the region.

Temperatures will fall below freezing between 9 pm and midnight and persist through the late morning hours on Wednesday.

In addition, northerly winds between 15 to 25 miles per hour (mph) will produce wind chill readings from the single digits over portions of the northern brush country and Victoria crossroads to around 20 degrees near the immediate coast early Wednesday morning.

Meanwhile, another storm system is expected to move across Texas on Thursday and Friday, producing a mix of wintry precipitation beginning late Thursday afternoon and continuing through Friday morning.

The precipitation will begin in the form of freezing rain and sleet over the coastal plains late Thursday afternoon changing over to sleet and possibly snow across much of south Texas Thursday night into Friday morning.

Exact amounts of ice and snow accumulations are uncertain at this time and will be highly dependent on the exact track of the weather system.