A bone-chilling cold snap in large swaths of the U.S. has left at least 20 people dead across the country, and there's no signs of it letting up.
The weather that stretched from the Midwest to the East Coast brought record low temperatures, and with it, dangerous conditions for those out in the elements.
In Tennessee alone, at least 11 people died as a result of hypothermia or accidents caused by icy conditions, according to local reports. Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky also reported weather-related deaths, although official numbers in each state still remain unclear.
In Philadelphia, an elderly woman with dementia wandered from her home, and later died of hypothermia. Meanwhile in New York, the cold is believed to have played a role in the death of a 31-year old man found in his car.
In Washington D.C., a hypothermia alert that was issued earlier this week remained on Saturday, as local authorities urged residents to keep an eye out for those on the streets.
Hypothermia Alert - To request shelter transport for DC residents who are homeless and on the street now, contact the Shelter Hotline Cont.— DC Police Department (@DCPoliceDept) February 20, 2015
New York City also issued a weather alert for the dangerously cold temperatures. Mayor Bill de Blasio's office urged residents of the city to report homeless people out in the cold.
If you see homeless folks out in the cold, call @nyc311 immediately and an outreach team will be dispatched to assist them.— NYC Mayor's Office (@NYCMayorsOffice) February 20, 2015
The U.S. was not the only country that saw risky lows. Further north in Toronto, Canada, a 3-year-old died after wandering out of his home early Thursday morning, and into the minus-4-degree-Fahrenheit cold wearing only a diaper, t-shirt and pair of snow boots.
The cold comes as a result of an "amplified," jet-stream pattern related in part to the polar vortex. The air flowing southward into the U.S. comes from Arctic Canada, with some lineage tracing back to Siberia. For this reason, many are calling the cold snap the "Siberian Express."
And it's not over yet. The deep freeze broke records in hundreds of cities across the eastern half of the United States on Friday, and is expected to last most of next week. Another widespread round of ice, snow or freezing rain is set to start falling Saturday from Missouri to the mid-Atlantic and as far south as Alabama and Georgia.
"Higher amounts over the next two days will probably be across southern Indiana and Illinois and eastward through Ohio into western Pennsylvania," said Bruce Sullivan, a senior meteorologist with the National Weather Service. "That's where it looks like the jackpot will be."
Additional reporting by Andrew Freedman and The Associated Press