Frank Pereira

The storm will last through Monday, but National Weather Service meteorologist Frank Pereira says it could go down in history as the biggest.

with more than half the U.S.

population hit by some combination of snow, topping a foot in parts, ice, up to an inch or more, and cold, deep cold.

Officials say stay home, but for some people, that's outside.

Whitney Slater was sleeping in his car, but moved to a warming center set up in Detroit.

The cold will lock in the snowpack for days.

In parts of the South, forecasters warn of catastrophic ice threatening the power system.

Perhaps even up to half the U.S.

population will be impacted by this storm, which is going to develop later today over parts of the United

Central and Southern Rockies into the Plains.

It's going to gradually work its way further to the east, bringing a widespread swath of heavy snow all the way from the southern Central Rockies eastward to eventually New England by this weekend.