Large parts of the South were blitzed with extreme winter weather recently, leading up to this weekend when the Northeast will experience historic wind chills as cold as 50 degrees below zero.

More than 400,000 homes and businesses in Texas endured freezing temperatures with no power as trees, heavy with ice, buckled onto power lines, according to PowerOutage.us, a website tracking utility reports.

More than 150,000 of those outages came from the capitol of Austin, and the deadly ice storm is now linked to at least three deaths in the state.

Another 60,000 customers in Arkansas, 20,000 in Mississippi, and 20,000 in Tennessee also had no power in the battle against the brutal cold Thursday morning.

School systems throughout Texas, joined by many in Arkansas, Memphis, and Tennessee closed Thursday as bands of winter precipitation continued to batter the region.

Ice accumulation on roadways, especially bridges, and overpasses, led to treacherous traveling conditions and resulted in at least eight deaths on slick roads since Monday, including seven in Texas and one in Arkansas. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott urged people not to drive.

Roadways were not the only travel option affected by the storm. FlightAware reported that more than 700 flights scheduled for Thursday had already been canceled by Thursday morning and almost 700 had been delayed.

In the Northeast, more than 15 million people are under wind chill warnings or advisories for what is expected to be a historic weather event going from Friday into Saturday. The alerts cover Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. They also include northern New Jersey, northeast Pennsylvania, and much of New York state outside of New York City and Long Island.

The Weather Prediction Center has said the region should prepare for temperature drops below negative 25 degrees. Such extreme conditions can cause frostbite in as little as 10 minutes.

"This is an epic, generational Arctic outbreak," the National Weather Service in Caribou, Maine told CNN. "The air mass descending on the area Friday into Friday night is the coldest air currently in the Northern Hemisphere."

Local governments began warning residents on Thursday, urging them to stay inside and be mindful of their neighbors as the unprecedented weather takes its hold.

"I urge all Boston residents to take precautions, stay warm and safe, and check on your neighbors during this cold emergency," said Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.

Wu declared a cold emergency for Friday through Sunday, as the city expects temperatures as extreme as 27 degrees below zero.

The incoming storm is not predicted to stay for long, as temperatures should begin to pick back up heading into Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. High temperatures across the region will rise 20 to 30 degrees as the weekend moves along.

Winter U.S.