What exactly is wind chill? Here's what goes into that "feels like" temperature.

A historic winter storm has led to thousands of canceled flights and resulted in more than 240 million people in the U.S. under some form of winter weather advisory ahead of the holiday weekend, as a powerful Arctic front continues moving east. About 180 million people are facing wind chill warnings or advisories, the National Weather Service said on Friday, warning that high winds from the cold front will produce "dangerous wind chill readings across nearly all of the central to eastern U.S." continuing into the weekend.

"Yesterday, we had wind chill warnings or advisories in 36 of the lower 48 states," Jen Carfagno, a meteorologist with the Weather Channel, told CBS News. "I can't remember personally ever seeing that widespread of a cold event."

In some parts of the country, temperatures could quickly plummet by as much as 50 degrees. Places like Des Moines, Iowa, where the temperature was -7 degrees Fahrenheit on Friday, are expected to feel even colder, with a wind chill factor of -35.