Cold and snow moving into the Midwest, Northeast

Mild temperatures that covered much of the Midwest and Northeast are out the window Tuesday as cold air and snow have moved into the region.

Out west, up to 20 inches of snow fell in Steamboat Springs, Colorado in the last 24 hours, while 11 inches of snow fell in parts of northwestern Minnesota.

Winds gusted in the Dakotas up to 66 mph, producing white out conditions on I-94 and I-29.

As the storm moved east, the temperature fell in Minneapolis from a record high yesterday of 57 degrees to 20 degrees Tuesday morning, and officially 2.1 inches of snow is reported at the airport this morning.

This morning, winter weather alerts and wind advisories are issued for 12 states from the Dakotas to Maine.

The storm system is moving out of the Plains Tuesday morning and into the Ohio Valley and eastern Great Lakes. The trailing cold front extends all the way south into the Tennessee River Valley and the Deep South.

The storm system moves into the Northeast on Tuesday evening with a squall line possible from Washington, D.C. to New York City and Boston. Gusty winds and heavy rain are possible.

Behind the storm system, wind chills Tuesday morning are dropping below zero in parts of the northern Plains.

The cold air continues to move into the Northeast by Thursday morning when wind chills will be below freezing from the Carolinas to Boston.

With cold air moving over the relatively warm Great Lakes, a winter storm watch has been posted for western New York with more than a foot of lake effect snow expected late Wednesday into Thursday.

Fire danger and damaging winds

Dry, Santa Ana winds overnight in Ventura and Los Angeles counties have gusted close to 70 mph and produced prime conditions for wildfire spread.

The Thomas Wildfire in Santa Paula, California has grown to 25,000 acres in a matter of hours overnight.

Red flag warnings and high wind warnings continue through this morning for Los Angeles and Ventura counties and all the way down to San Diego.