A major winter blast is stirring up dangerous conditions across the U.S. central and southern states all the way to the East Coast

Temperatures plunged into the teens and single digits in some spots, and the snow-dusted winds are driving the wind chill below zero. The polar vortex, a swirling mass of Arctic air typically contained over the North Pole, has pushed south, driving bone-chilling temperatures into the eastern United States.

As the cold front moved southward Tuesday, it prompted a cold weather advisory for the Gulf Coast and pushed temperatures below freezing in El Paso, Texas.

A huge swath of the U.S. was blasted with ice, snow and wind on Monday as the polar vortex that dipped south over the weekend kept much of the country east of the Rockies in its frigid grip, making many roads treacherous,