National Weather Service

Multiple people died Tuesday and at least a dozen were injured when a powerful tornado tore through a small Iowa town, carving a bleak landscape of destroyed homes, shredded trees and smashed cars.

Forecasters warned a wave of dangerous storms in the U.S. could march through parts of the South early Thursday, after deadly storms a day earlier spawned damaging tornadoes and massive hail.

Parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, West Virginia, Virginia and Georgia were under tornado watches, while Wisconsin was experiencing a spring snowstorm.

Police across the Northeast reported hundreds of traffic accidents over the weekend. Meanwhile, a separate storm will continue Monday across much of the Rockies, Plains and upper Midwest.

Rapidly moving Texas wildfires Tuesday prompted evacuations in small towns and shut down a nuclear facility as strong winds, dry grass and unseasonably warm temperatures fueled the blazes.

The numbing cold is expected to ease in the coming days as water systems in Memphis and other Tennessee cities battle broken pipes that have caused boil-water notices.

Bitter cold is on the way for the Triad and High Country this weekend. An arctic cold front is moving across the state today bringing with it cold, dry, blustery arctic air that will pour into the region with temperatures falling throughout the afternoon.

Temperatures plunged below zero in parts of Tennessee, creating the largest power demand ever for the Tennessee Valley Authority. The icy blast stretches from Oregon to the Northeast.

The storm caused deaths and damage in the Southeast and stranded motorists on highways in the Midwest. It is expected to bring heavy rain to the Northeast, parts of which got a foot of snow on Sunday.

The historic heat began blasting the Southwestern U.S. in June, stretching from Texas across New Mexico and Arizona and into California's desert.