A powerful Pacific storm will continue to lash the Southwest with heavy snow, strong winds and travel-disrupting rain today. The system is part of a train of storms that will remain aimed directly at the Southwest into next week.

The brunt of the storm will remain centered across California this morning with conditions set to deteriorate over the Southwest’s interior as today progresses.

Feet of Snow Burying the Sierra

A yardstick will be needed to measure the snow that will keep burying the Sierra through tonight. The snow is expected to amount to a few feet.

Feet of snow alone would make travel treacherous on mountain roads and passes. Strong winds, however, will worsen the situation by severely blowing and drifting the snow around.

For a larger version of this map, visit the AccuWeather.com Winter Weather Center.

The adverse conditions have forced officials to enforce chain requirements on Interstate 80 through the Sierra.

Snow from today’s storm will not just be confined to the Sierra. Substantial snow will blanket the resorts of Southern California today, then the mountains of the Rockies later today into tonight.

An invasion of colder air could even cause rain to end as light snow across the Grapevine corridor of Interstate 5 in California towards sunset. Salt Lake City should see rain transition to an inch or two of snow this evening.

Potentially Damaging Winds

While windy conditions are already being experienced across parts of the Southwest this morning, more places will have to endure the howling winds later today.

Gusts past 50 mph are expected throughout the interior Southwest, which includes California’s upper deserts, Nevada, Utah and northern Arizona.

The winds “will whistle through the canyons and over the deserts, kicking up dust, prior to rainfall,” according to AccuWeather.com Expert Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski.

The strength of the winds could also damage trees, road signs and power lines. Semi-trucks and campers run the risk of getting overturned.

While not gusting as strong as the winds over the interior Southwest, windy conditions could lead to flight delays in San Francisco and Los Angeles today.

Rain for the Lower Elevations

With a steady stream of moisture from the Pacific Ocean in place, periods of rain will continue to wet the lower elevations of California today.

There are several beneficial and negative aspects of today’s rain, all of which Sosnowski discussed on Tuesday.

However, one of the main impacts will be to create travel disruptions, both on the ground and in the air.

Accompanying today’s rain could be thunderstorms across northern and central California. An isolated number of these thunderstorms could produce small hail and brief tornadoes.

Additional Pacific Storms to Target the Southwest

The storminess across the Southwest will not end with today’s system. Additional storms will slam into the region over the next several days.

A new Pacific storm will return rain and mountain snow to northern and central California as soon as Thursday with another set to target places farther south Friday into Saturday.

The system Friday into Saturday, compared to today’s storm, will “be a stronger storm, at least for amounts of rain and snow in central and Southern California,” according to AccuWeather.com Western Expert Meteorologist Ken Clark.

Following the Friday to Saturday storm, yet another system may take aim on the Southwest during the first or middle part of next week. More substantial rain and mountain snow will get unleashed.