At least 215 million Americans were impacted by a powerful Arctic cold front, officially called a “bomb cyclone,” that has gained momentum in North America with a “dangerous and record-breaking cold air mass.” With a number of states under winter weather warnings and advisories, the National Weather Service (NWS) warned Wednesday that the country was expected to face the deadly conditions for at least the rest of the week, stretching from the Pacific Northwest, across the Plains then South to the Gulf Coast with heavy snowfall, strong winds, and dangerously cold temperatures which are expected to drop 20-35 degrees in a matter of hours. “Wind chills of this magnitude can cause frostbite in less than five minutes if precautions are not taken, with hypothermia and death also possible from prolonged exposure to the cold,” the NWS warned. In South Dakota, authorities were working to help stranded motorists in more than 100 vehicles, and released locations of “warming stations” that citizens can use while they wait for conditions to clear. Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt declared a state of emergency for all 77 counties, while Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, also declaring a state of emergency, pleaded with residents to “please take this arctic event very seriously.” According to The Washington Post, a bomb cyclone “is a mid-latitude storm whose central air pressure falls at a rate of one millibar per hour for at least 24 hours.”