Storm battering West Coast now moving east with further warnings

— -- The strong storm system pounding the West Coast with gusty winds up to 70 mph, more than 3 inches of rain and heavy snow is set to disrupt the Midwest and East Coast next.

The storm system begins to move east from the Rockies into the central Plains and into the Great Lakes and East Coast this weekend.

Ahead of the storm, 10 western states are on storm alert for damaging winds, heavy snow and flooding rain.

The heaviest rain on Thursday morning is falling in California, around the San Francisco Bay area, and into the low elevations of Sierra Nevada mountains.

The heaviest snow this morning is falling in the Cascades and Sierra Nevada mountains.

Over the next 24 hours, the storm system will begin to move east, bringing heavy snow and wind to the Rockies. Some rain is even possible in Southern California around Santa Barbara and Los Angeles.

Through the day Thursday an additional 1 to 3 inches of rain is possible for central California, where we could see flooding, and in the mountains an additional 1 to 3 feet of snow is expected from Sierra Nevada mountains to the Colorado Rockies.

As the storm moves east, showers and thunderstorms are expected in the Midwest on Friday into Saturday with some severe storms possible Saturday from Memphis to Cincinnati. The biggest threat with these storms will be damaging winds, some hail and there could be a tornado threat, ABC News meteorologists are predicting.

As the storm system moves into the Northeast, gusty winds and heavy rain are forecast from Washington, D.C. to Boston from Saturday afternoon into Sunday morning.

Behind the storm system, much colder air and gusty winds will produce heavy lake effect snow bands near the Great Lakes from Grand Rapids, Michigan to Buffalo, New York.