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March is coming in like a lion — an angry one — with a winter storm expected to hit millions in the Northeast and Midwest with snow, ice and freezing cold.

With spring just three weeks away, Connecticut was looking at temperatures of 5 below zero for early Saturday, with the potential to break the record low for March.

The state put a severe-cold weather protocol into effect and encouraged the opening of warming centers, NBC Connecticut reported.

The frigid blast will be followed up by a Sunday snowstorm that could wallop New York, New Jersey and Connecticut with up to 10 inches by the time it's done.

There could be 4 to 6 inches on the ground by the morning commute, and the snow might not taper off until the afternoon, forecasters told NBC New York.

In the Ohio Valley, the problem will be ice with a storm moving through Sunday and Monday from Ohio to Washington, D.C. Even Tennessee could be affected.

It appeared that the ice would skip Chicago, but the city was facing snowfall Saturday into Sunday with accumulations of up to six inches and nighttime wind chill falling to zero.