At least 46 million people were under a winter storm warning as of Thursday as the storm spreads along the Gulf Coast Friday, according to the weather service. The storm should weaken by Saturday, bringing lighter snow between 1 and 3 inches to parts of the Northeast, the Mid-Atlantic and the Ohio Valley before exiting off the Carolinas.

Twenty states, from Texas to Delaware, were on alert Friday for snow and ice as the storm continued to move across the South.