This is NBC Nightly News with Jose Diaz Ballard.

Good evening. We begin tonight with 20 million of us bracing for bitter cold and a new round of wintry weather.

This was a scene in Utah of the night. Snowplows already working overtime to clear roads during a triple threat of strong winds, heavy snow, and icy conditions.

But it wasn't just there.

You could see it really coming down across much of the mountain west as that system moved east.

And in the Midwest tonight, temperatures plummeting.

So cold, it even froze the shoreline along Lake Superior.

Adrian Broad us starts us off tonight from Chicago.

Tonight, as snow plows in Utah pushed through heavy snow,

a fast-moving system is putting 20 million people under winter weather alerts.

Here we are. Another day in paradise.

In the northern Rockies, some states picked up nearly a foot of snow. 80 mile per hour wind gust swept

the slopes in Breckenridge, Colorado. But skiers kept going. In Iowa, fresh snow blanketing the final fall colors.

Snow, ice, and wind, also creating dangerous road conditions.

In Arkansas, fog is reducing visibility.

And Lake Superior's frozen shoreline in Wisconsin shows how hard this cold snap is hitting the Midwest.

I don't know how y'all do winter here because I can barely handle this.

In Chicago, wind chills dip lower than many expected this week, and winter is still weeks away.

This is early for us to have this much snow and these temperatures. So we're kind of bracing ourselves for a

rough one this year. Never seen this much snow this early. Adrian joins me now from Chicago and

Adrian, we're tracking dangerous cold throughout the weekend. Jose, we are tonight's coldest airs

in the northern plains with temperatures below zero,

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