Messy holiday travel hits country from Rockies to the Northeast

— -- Twenty-two states from the Rockies down to Texas and east to Maine are under snow and flood alerts ahead of an incoming storm on Friday and Saturday.

Several inches of snow fell from Denver to the upper Midwest on Thursday, producing icy roads and plenty of accidents.

The storm system is moving east and stretches from Dallas to Boston on Friday morning. Airport delays are possible in Dallas, Memphis and Boston.

Very slick travel is forecast Friday afternoon and evening in the Northeast -- north of New York City into New England, where travel delays are possible in Boston.

The storm system reaches most of the I-95 corridor by Saturday with rain from Washington, D.C. to Boston.

As the storm system moves through, the rain will change back to snow in the Northeast and all the way back into the Ohio Valley and down to Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle. The National Weather Service has issued a winter weather advisory for Oklahoma City.

The heaviest snow will fall in the Rockies and New England where locally a foot of fresh snow is possible.

Bitter cold follows

Behind these storms, another system will move through the country with more snow and much colder air.

Wind chills will be in the teens and 20s across much of the country on Christmas morning.

The day after Christmas the coldest air moves into the Northeast.