Meteorologists are predicting colder-than-normal temperatures to hit a large portion of the United States, which will bring the first snowstorms of the year to many areas.

Towns and cities in northern Midwest have already been blanketed with snow this weekend and the same treatment is set to arrive in the central Plains, Ohio Valley, mid-Atlantic and New England starting early next week.

There was a 45-car pileup along Interstate 70 about 10 miles from Terre Haute, Indiana, due to the snow.

Several of the cars slid across the eastbound side to the median, into the grass, and even toward oncoming traffic on the westbound side of the highway.

Incoming storms are expected impact ground and air travel, while also forcing schools in certain areas to shutter temporarily. 

'My thinking is that the cold the first week of December is the appetizer and the main course will be in mid-December,' climatologist Judah Cohen, a research scientist at MIT, told USA Today.

He further claimed that his computer model is forecasting 'that the most expansive region of most likely extreme cold on Earth stretches from the Canadian Plains to the US East Coast in the third week of December'.

A 'polar vortex', or a large, low-pressure cold air system, will remain up above Canada for the next seven to ten days, said Weather Trader meteorologist Ryan Maue in a Substack post.

Determining where snow will fall and how much is a bit trickier, given that precipitation cannot be predicted more than three days in advance.

According to an AccuWeather forecast, a storm will form along a boundary where expanding cold air and warm air will have begun to meet from Monday to Tuesday night.

The storm will bring a mix of snow and sleet to Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, along with parts of West Virginia, Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Parts of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina will likely also have to deal with ice buildup on top of snowfall.

The southern states - as far east as coastal Virginia, as far south as northern Florida and as far inland as eastern Texas - are expected to be hit with significant rainfall.

By Tuesday night, New York and New England will receive snow, with most areas getting from one to six inches.

The Catskills of New York, the Berkshires of Connecticut and Massachusetts and southeastern Maine could see a maximum of 12 inches of snow.

In cities such as New York City and Philadelphia, the snow will eventually turn to rain on Tuesday, potentially leading to slippery roads.

If a second storm blows down cold air from the Hudson Valley, New York could be in for even more snow than previously thought.

These storms in the US could bring the lowest temperatures recorded since last February.