A wide swath of winter weather is expected to slam the U.S. through the weekend, moving from the Southwest through Texas and Oklahoma, across the South and Tennessee Valley.

A severe winter storm is expected to sweep across the United States this week, with a potent cocktail of heavy snow, ice and extreme cold, affecting up to 160 million people.

The massive storm system is expected to bring a crippling ice storm from Texas through parts of the South, potentially around a foot (30 centimeters) of snow from Oklahoma through Washington, D.C., Ne...