With temperatures dipping down to the negatives on Saturday night, Eugene has had to endure a cold that doesn’t come around here too often.

Starting on Thursday night, the National Weather Service issued a report that the southern Willamette Valley area should be expecting to get two to four inches of snow. Eugene didn’t end up getting 4 inches of snow — instead, the city got 12 inches in some areas.

In the midst of the constant snowfall on Friday, the University of Oregon canceled all classes and events for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Approximately 200 car accidents happened between Friday morning and Saturday night, according to the Eugene Police Department.

Eugene hit one of its coldest points ever on Sunday morning at -10 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. The only recorded time it was colder than that was 41 years ago in 1972, when the temperature was at -12 degrees. Eugene’s unexpected and rare cold rush is a part of a nation-wide cold snap due to a massive and vicious arctic air that started from the north and is currently going south.

Arctic airs are masses of air that are formed primarily over the Arctic Basin, Greenland and the northern interior of North America, according to the Meteorological Society’s meteorological glossary. The air is a hard cold that can stretch throughout large areas of land.

This particular arctic air was formed over the arctic ice cap, according to the National Weather Service. The worst of Eugene’s cold weather is behind it, but other parts of the country won’t get the harsh weather until later this week. Temperatures in Eugene will warm up throughout the week, with the low for Monday forecast at 35 degrees and a high Thursday at 48 degrees, according to AccuWeather.com.

32 million people will be affected by this countrywide storm of ice, snow and low temperatures, according to the Weather Channel.

Oregon is among the first areas in the nation being affected by the arctic air, but some states were hit harder than others. Arkansas had the worst power outage in the country this year with 10,000 residents currently without power, according to the Weather Channel.

States that usually never have to deal with the cold are currently getting the worst of it, with parts of southern California and Texas expecting to get below freezing temperatures. Four people have died in San Francisco from hypothermia over the weekend and San Francisco hasn’t had the full effect of the arctic air yet.