ARLINGTON, Va. − Millions of gleeful students were kept out of schools, travel was chaotic and the federal government shuttered offices around the nation's capital Tuesday as a wall of bitter cold temperatures, ice and snow descended on a broad expanse of the nation.

The sweeping mass of arctic air crashing down from Canada was forecast to deliver subfreezing temperatures to three-fourths of the nation, and 68 million Americans were under a winter weather advisory Tuesday. New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., saw an end to snow droughts that lasted almost two years.

"Once again, winter weather headlines dominate much of the weather story," National Weather Service Meteorologist Jacob Asherman said.

About 4 inches of snow fell in the Washington, D.C., area, closing many businesses, offices and schools. The snow was finished, but the deep freeze was just beginning − the temperature wasn't forecast to rise above freezing until Thursday. By Friday another system could mean another deep-freeze lasting through the weekend.

In suburban Virginia, Mark Hyatt, 47, went for a 3-mile run before shoveling out two cars and the steps to his Arlington home. Hyatt, a defense contractor, was working from home because his office was closed. He was not complaining.

"I think its wonderful to have snow here after two years," Hyatt said. "I hope they have some on the ski slopes. It's been tough − global warming is a real thing."

Ken Robbins, 53, shrugged off the snowstorm. A senior vice president at a real estate firm, Robbins routinely works from home. He said he owns a snowblower but decided to use a shovel Tuesday.

"I'm from Maine. This is a dusting for me."

150M under weather alerts:'Dangerous cold' has US in its clutches

Developments:

∎ More than 7,000 flights had been delayed or canceled as of noon ET. More than 36,000 such disruptions were reported Saturday through Monday, a high-travel weekend because of the Martin Luther King holiday.

∎ Nine deaths have been linked to the weather over the last few days. In Oregon, two people died of hypothermia and two were killed by falling trees. A snowmobiler was hit by a truck in Utah, a skier was killed by an avalanche in Wyoming and three people died of suspected hypothermia in Wisconsin.

∎ More than 130,000 homes and businesses were without power, including 52,000 in Oregon.

∎ Classes were canceled for millions of students from Portland to Chicago to Denver to Dallas to Baltimore. Many schools already canceled classes for Wednesday as well.

∎ In Kentucky, Powell County Search and Rescue led a team that extricated four hikers trapped in the Red River Gorge, calling it "one of the most dangerous rescues ever attempted in the Gorge."

Nashville gets more snow in a day than it gets in a year

In Tennessee, almost two dozen abandoned cars lined the steep, icy entry to a Nashville apartment complex. The area averaged 4.7 inches of snow a year from 1991 to 2020, but this storm dumped 8 inches on the National Weather Service office. And it won't melt soon − the temperature isn't forecast to rise above freezing until Thursday afternoon.

Elijah Clark shouldered his backpack as he left his Honda Civic in the middle of the road. He said he had driven to a friend's house to drop off a guitar.

"We're stuck-stuck," he told The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network. "I came back hoping I could make it up the hill − front wheel drive and all that − and it did not work out. It did not work out at all."

− Keith Sharon, Evan Mealins and Angele Latham, Nashville Tennessean

More record-breaking cold for much of the nation

A similar narrative is playing out across much of the nation. Asherman cited areas of wintry precipitation along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and said frigid Arctic air is "sandwiched" over the central and southern U.S. After producing widespread snow, sleet and freezing rain over the Deep South on Monday, the fast-moving system was spreading moderate to heavy snowfall into the mid-Atlantic Tuesday morning.

The Pacific Northwest faced "significant" freezing rain as well. Portions of the Cascades into the Northern Rockies could see 15-28 inches of snow, Asherman said. And another day of record-breaking cold was expected across much of the Rockies, Great Plains and Midwest, he said. Wind chills below minus 30 could extend as far south as the Mississippi Valley, Asherman said.

A reprieve is expected Wednesday, but another surge of arctic air is forecast to sweep across the Plains and Deep South by Thursday or Friday.

Northeast snow drought comes to an end

Philadelphia saw more than an inch for the first time in 715 days. Baltimore's 1.4 inches snapped a streak of 716 days. Washington, D.C., snapped its 1-inch streak of 728 days.

"It's official! Over 1" of snow so far in DC & Baltimore, first time in approx. two years we've had this much snow!" the weather service office serving the cities said in a social media post.

New York's Central Park drew more than 1 inch of snow for the first time in 701 days.

"The streak has ended!" the weather service in New York City said in a post.