Major storm headed to Plains and South bringing threat of tornadoes

A quick but heavy burst of snow moved through the Mid-Atlantic Tuesday, dropping snow in central Pennsylvania, West Virginia and near Washington, D.C.

Virginia's Department of Transportation is urging drivers to be especially careful on the roads Wednesday morning.

Now our attention turns to the West, where storms continue to pound the coast with heavy rain and snow in the mountains.

Up to 2 feet of snow fell in parts of the Northern Rockies, where an avalanche warning has been issued for Idaho and western Montana.

Yet another storm is expected to move into the Northwest and Northern Rocky Mountains on Wednesday with more heavy snow in the mountains and rain along the coast and lower elevations. A winter storm warning has been issued for the area.

By Thursday, some of the western storms will begin to make their way south and east with rain expected from Southern California to the Great Lakes.

But this is just the beginning, as a much stronger storm is expected to develop Friday and Saturday in the heartland.

By Friday, this western storm will move into the southern Plains and strengthen to produce a severe weather outbreak , with tornadoes, damaging winds and large hail.

Dallas, Houston and Little Rock could be in the crosshairs of this severe weather.

Further north and east, heavy rain could lead to flash flooding for the Tennessee and the Ohio valleys.

Further north and west, snow will fly from Colorado to Iowa.

On Saturday, the storm will strengthen even more and move east with damaging winds and a tornado threat spreading into major cities such as New Orleans, Birmingham and Nashville.

Heavy snow is expected from Missouri to Michigan. Chicago could also be impacted. The storm could bring major delays to the central U.S. at the end of the week and into the weekend.