A brutal polar vortex is set to bury the Big Apple in snow Sunday and then deliver deadly single-digit temperatures that will feel like 15 degrees below zero.

A major cold blast is in store for millions of Americans as a lobe of a polar vortex will bring brutally cold temperatures to nearly every American east of the Rockies.

A polar vortex is slated to sweep most of the continental US bringing winter storm warnings and a hazardous freeze to millions.

A blast of Arctic air is set to cover much of the United States with temperatures below freezing starting on Friday and into next week, impacting millions of Americans in nearly all of the contiguous states.

Snow and winds are likely to trigger flight cancellations and cause headaches for people traveling to DC for Inauguration Day.

The polar vortex is expected to reach the Utah-Idaho border sometime in the late afternoon and evening Friday as it continues to move south. As it moves through parts of the state, it will produce small snow showers, bringing more snow to the region before drier conditions return.

These severe cold events occur when the polar jet stream – the familiar jet stream of winter that runs along the boundary between Arctic and more temperate air – dips deeply southward, bringing the cold Arctic air to regions that don’t often experience it.

NEWS has issued Weather Impact Days for Friday through Tuesday due to subzero temperatures, wind chill and snow.

FOX59 Meteorologist Ethan Rosuck provided an update on the dangerous cold Indianapolis could see at the start of the work week.

The intense cold snap about to settle over most of Canada and the U.S. has been dubbed a “polar vortex’, but Environment Canada Senior Climatologist David Phillips says it could just as easily be called “Arctic air or Siberian air.”

The polar vortex will extend into the metro St. Louis area Saturday, bringing several days of temperatures plunging to single digits and wind chills below zero.