Forecasters warned that dangerous extra-cold conditions will persist for a huge swath of the U.S. from the Gulf Coast into New England.

A “bomb cyclone” is starting to bring heavy snow to the Southeast and is ushering in frigid temperature to much of East Coast Saturday.

Airports also recorded around 1 million travelers on each of the five days between last Friday and Tuesday. It took 292 days to reach 1 million cases on Nov. 11. Nurses are exhausted, terrified of what’s next and angry at those who ignore pleas to stay home and stay safe. “I wish they could just walk down our unit for a day and look at the faces of some of these patients,” said Holy Cross nurse Jenny Carrillo, her voice breaking. Associated Press writers Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Missouri, and Shelley Adler in Fairfax, Virginia, contributed to this story.