A stew of foul weather, ranging from freezing rain and snow in the Midwest to thunderstorms and possible tornadoes in the South, is arriving just in time for one of the busiest travel weekends of the year.

Much of the nation was bracing for something, with freezing rain then snow likely in the northern Plains, downpours expected from St Louis through Appalachia, and even weekend tornadoes a possibility in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

While much of the East awoke Friday to unusually warm weather for this time of year, the region was next in the storm front's crosshairs, creating pre-Christmas travel worries from Chicago and Detroit to Boston and New York.

AAA projected that nearly 95 million Americans would travel 50 miles or more during the holiday period, which runs from Saturday through January 1. Temperatures that hovered in the 60s in some parts of the Midwest on Thursday plummeted overnight, and freezing rain Friday morning snarled traffic and forced some school closures in Michigan and Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation said Interstate 90/94 was ice-covered from Tomah and Mauston. The state was bracing for significant snow, sleet and ice.

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