Over a foot of snow piles up in the Great Lakes as Arctic blast spreads across much of the US

By CNN Meteorologists Briana Waxman and Chris Dolce

(CNN) — Intense lake-effect snow is creating dangerous travel conditions in the Great Lakes and it’s all being fueled by a record cold snap sending the eastern half of the United States into a brief bout of winter.

The snow developed overnight in Chicagoland along with thunder and strong winds. Forecasts for the city on Sunday called for potential historic November snow totals over 10 inches, but the heaviest bands of snow have so far spared the downtown area from those kinds of totals.

Lake-effect snow totals often swing wildly from location to location depending on where heavier bands develop because of how narrow they are.

That’s what we are seeing this morning near Lake Michigan. Up to a foot of snow has fallen more than 50 miles south of Chicago, and totals north of the city in Lake County, Illinois, have reached 6 inches in spots. Dangerous travel conditions from snow and strong winds have been reported along Interstate 57 south of Chicago in Kankakee and northern Iroquois counties in Illinois, the National Weather Service said.

Chicago proper has been in a lull after an overnight burst of snowfall but could pick up another 1 to 2 inches. Cook County, Illinois, which includes downtown Chicago, has been downgraded from a winter storm warning to a winter weather advisory since less snow is now expected.

The snow threat stretches beyond Chicago across the Great Lakes. It’s being spawned by a rush of Arctic air that’s unusually cold for November pushing south and east and threatening dozens of low temperature records as far south as Florida over the next couple of days.

Over a foot of snow has fallen in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. In northwest Indiana, up to 10 inches of snow has fallen in spots, with more accumulation expected the rest of the day. Several inches of snow will pileup in the eastern Great Lakes through Tuesday, particularly in the snow belts of northeast Ohio, northwest Pennsylvania and southwest New York.

Record-setting cold to start the week

This brutal winter-like setup in the Midwest is being driven by the same Arctic air mass that’s crashing across the eastern two-thirds of the country. This isn’t just a “cold front.” This is a full-scale polar plunge.

Some southeastern cities could face some of their coldest early-November temperatures in decades on Tuesday morning.

Daily record lows will be threatened parts of Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, the Carolinas, southeast Louisiana and even Florida. That includes places like Birmingham and Huntsville in Alabama, Baton Rouge in Louisiana, Savannah in Georgia and Tampa and Fort Myers in Florida.

Jacksonville, Florida, is predicted to hit 30 degrees Tuesday morning, marking the earliest it’s been that cold in fall since 1976. That would also be the case in Savannah, Georgia, if the low drops to 28 degrees.

Tuesday daytime highs in Florida could be some of the coldest on record for the date. Melbourne, Florida, could see its earliest day below 60 degrees since records began there more than 85 years ago.

Cold weather advisories for wind chills in the 20s or lower 30s have been issued in Florida for Monday night into Tuesday morning as far south as Naples. Freeze warnings cover parts of several other states in the Southeast.

Washington, DC, and New York City are also likely to log their coldest morning of the stretch on Tuesday. DC could wake up near 30 degrees. New York only reaches a high in the mid-40s Tuesday afternoon. Morning wind chills in both cities could sit in the lower to mid-20s.

There will be snow in other regions as well. Lake-effect snow continues downwind of the Great Lakes. The west slopes of the central Appalachians could pick up several inches Monday. Higher elevations from West Virginia through the border of North Carolina and Tennessee can expect accumulating snow.

The good news: The cold snap won’t stick around long. Temperatures across the central US rebound quickly on Tuesday, and most of the East warms up again on Wednesday.

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CNN Meteorologists Mary Gilbert and Brandon Miller contributed to this report.