Unsettled weather will hassle holiday travel, winds increase in California

— -- Two storm systems are set to bring unsettled weather to much of the country during one of the busiest travel times of the year.

First, a storm system in the South will move out of southern Texas on Tuesday and bring severe weather from San Antonio to Jackson, Mississippi. These storms are forecast to produce damaging winds and even a slight chance for a tornado.

By Wednesday afternoon, the same storm system will move into the Southeast, where it could drop heavy rain and produce strong thunderstorms. A few of the storms could become severe with damaging winds.

Some areas could see more than 4 inches of rain in the next 48 hours.

The second storm system will be moving into the Northwest on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning with very heavy mountain snow, damaging winds and rain from Seattle all the way into central California.

The storm system will move east by Thursday into the Plains and spread the heaviest snow of the season from Denver to Minneapolis and into Green Bay, Wisconsin. Heavy rain and thunderstorms are possible in the southern Plains.

By Friday and Saturday, the storm system moves into the Northeast with heavy snow for the northern New England states, rain from Boston to Washington, D.C. and a few thunderstorms from Raleigh, North Carolina, to Atlanta and into the Gulf Coast.

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Behind the storm system is the coldest air of the season. This will be a true arctic air mass with temperatures well below zero from the Rockies into the Great Lakes.

Gusty SoCal winds

Just as firefighters start to get the upper hand on the wildfires in Southern California, more gusty, erratic winds are coming from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles on Wednesday into Thursday.

A mostly dry, cold front will reach Southern California by Wednesday afternoon, bringing gusty winds of 30 to 40 mph, with some local gusts near 60 mph possible.

Behind this cold front, gusty winds will continue into Thursday.

The National Weather Service will probably begin to issue new red flag warnings and wind advisories for this event later Tuesday for Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties.