60 pct of U.S. population under winter weather warnings or advisories

Over 200 million people, or roughly 60 percent of the U.S. population, are under some form of winter weather warnings or advisories across the United States, said the National Weather Service (NWS) on Thursday.

"A tremendously impactful winter storm will continue to affect large portions of the nation late this week and going into the holiday weekend," said the NWS Weather Prediction Center on Thursday evening.

The "powerful arctic" front has brought huge temperature drops across the Greater Plains of the United States over the past 24 hours and is forecast to produce areas of heavy snow, strong winds, and life-threatening wind chills through Saturday.

Meteorologists say the winter storm could intensify into a "bomb cyclone," which occurs when atmospheric pressure at the center of the cyclone drops rapidly.

Severe weather conditions have upended travels in many parts of the United States ahead of Christmas, which falls on Sunday.

"We have not just a large portion of the country affected by these winter storms, but that includes some of the key hubs for many of our airlines," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Wednesday.

Airlines have canceled more than 2,300 flights within, into, or out of the United States as of early Thursday evening, according to the flight-tracking site FlightAware.