From the Dakotas to Texas, some 200 million people will feel the wrath of a polar vortex as early as next week. The infamous cold front will hit the north-central part of the U.S. and then expand southward and eastward. Not only will it be brutally cold, the weather may linger well past the middle of the month. The hardest-hit areas will be Minneapolis, Chicago, Fargo, and St. Louis. Temperatures could plunge by as much as 40 degrees. Temperatures may not get out of the 30s as far as east as New York.