Nation's West, Midwest In Path Of Massive Winter Storm

As many as 30 million people living from Oklahoma to the Ohio Valley are in the path of a storm moving east out of California that could dump several inches of snow in some areas and freezing rain and sleet elsewhere in the next few days.

According to the Weather Channel, the storm is caused by an "upper-level dip in the jet stream," on Wednesday.

Snow will also intensify and spread east in the Plains and Midwest Wednesday into Thursday. By that point, conditions will become favorable for a zone of freezing rain and sleet from Oklahoma and Kansas to the Ohio Valley and parts of the East.

CNN reports that "the biggest threat of heavy snow lies in parts of Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri, with the possibility of whiteout conditions in some places."

CNN says Chicago could get 4 inches of snow, St. Louis 2 inches, while New Orleans could get 2 to 6 inches of rain.