 A massive winter storm is sweeping across the northern U.S., with blinding snow in some places, freezing rain in others, and whipping winds in bitter cold temperatures across several states.At the Double Cross Cattle Company, a ranch south of Roberts, Montana, Tyson Ropp used an axe on Friday morning to chop through inches of ice covering a trough so that his bulls could get to their water. The sun cast a weak light across the snow-covered landscape as he worked and the Beartooth Mountains. Could be seen in the distance, Ropp used a feed truck to spread extra hay for his cows, about 75 pounds per animal and planned to do so again later in the day, with temperatures forecasted to drop overnight to minus 28 and wind chills as low as minus 50 that he planned to spread straw on the ground somewhere out of the wind where the cattle could lie down to stay dry and conserve heat. It's going to get pretty chilly tonight, he said. We've got a couple hidey holes they can get into and bed down and hunker down together and stay warm. Cold snaps like this, it'll last a few days and then it'll warm up, it happens every winter. I believe it's supposed to get down in the mid-negative 20s, but with the wind chill that could be anywhere from 40 to 60 below. It's going to get pretty chilly tonight, we've got a couple hidey holes they can get into and bed down and hunker down together and stay warm, pretty good. Just playing ahead, keep everything plugged in and that's it, that's just Montana.