New York City and Washington, D.C., were among the cities urging unsheltered people to get in from the cold Tuesday as the Northeast, Great Plains and Midwest faced winter storms that put tens of millions under weather alerts.

The heaviest snow is forecast further east, with the NWS warning of between six and nine inches for Central Interior Cumberland and Coastal Cumberland counties in Maine, along with Chenango, Madison, Otsego, and Southern Oneida counties in New York state.