A blast of Arctic air coming is expected to drastically drop temperatures in parts of the U.S. and could bring a major winter storm next week. The extreme weather comes amid a busy travel period for the holidays.

A strong snowstorm could develop along the interior northeast, throughout the Great Lakes and into the Ohio Valley starting midweek into the weekend. Forecasters are expecting heavy snow to reach big cities like New York and Washington, D.C.

"Our confidence is growing, and what that means is that there's more agreement on the forecast data, so the significant winter storm becomes more likely," FOX Weather meteorologist Amy Freeze said.

"The timing right now is that this could last into Christmas weekend. For some, it's a nightmare. For others, this could be dreaming of a white Christmas come true," Freeze said.

The storm could bring the coldest Christmas in decades to many people across the nation as storms like this have also brought low temperatures and storm effects to the South, as well.

"This storm will likely become intense, feeding on the extremely sharp variation between the surging arctic air arriving from the Central states and relatively warm air across the Southeastern U.S.," AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jon Porter said.

"Major East Coast storms over the decades have occurred in this type of setup, bringing the risk for heavy snow and rain, gusty winds, coastal flooding, severe thunderstorms and even tornadoes on the southern side of the storm," Porter added.