The wintry wallop comes as a blast of Arctic air will invade much of the Midwest, Great Lakes and northern United States for roughly a week.

As a deep winter chill begins to take over the northern half of the country, a new major winter storm will move across the U.S. this weekend into early next week. Around 47 million Americans across 14 states were under winter weather alerts as of early Saturday morning,

The heaviest snowfall in a decade is on its way to Kansas and Missouri, part of a major winter storm stretching 1,300 miles across the central United States that is set to impact up to 62 million, forecasters say.

Heavy snow and ice are expected to cause disruption across Scotland over the weekend, with temperatures forecast to drop as low as -10C. A yellow warning for snow in Shetland is in place until 18:00 while a yellow alert for icy conditions in the Highlands is due to come in to force from 16:00 on Saturday until 10:00 on Sunday.

The Met Office has issued a new amber weather warning for snow and ice for parts of Wales and England for Saturday and Sunday. The forecaster predicts snow and freezing rain will likely lead to disruption to transport and other services.