Eastern Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada will be next to feel the effects of a powerful winter storm Friday that roared across southern Ontario overnight.

The storm is expected to bring periods of heavy snow, wind in places and possibly ice pellets and freezing drizzle.Salt trucks hit the streets of Toronto

As well, the weather could cause traffic delays on roads and highways and result in airline flights either being delayed or possibly cancelled.

"Ottawa right up to Cornwall are going to get hammered today," says the CBC's Colleen Jones.

"So will Montreal, right up to Quebec City."

As the storm moves east, it could dump as much as 20-30 centimetres of snow on places like Montreal and the Eastern townships in Quebec.

"That's a whack of snow," says Jones, who notes that for Montreal, the biggest one-day snowfall for this particular day in history was 24 centimetres.

Parts of New Brunswick, P.E.I. and Nova Scotia could end up with a wet, freezing evening, according to the latest reports from Environment Canada.

The same storm system is also affecting much of the Northeastern United States which was under as winter storm warning on Friday.

The U.S. National Weather Service was warning that travel conditions in some areas could be hazardous.

Overnight, there were visions of a white holiday season –- and heavy shovelling work –- in southern Ontario.

On Friday morning, Air Canada in Toronto was warning passengers the severe weather could delay flights.

And the City of Toronto's road operations manager, Rob Orpin, was warning that the morning drive could be slow-going.

"It's going to be a long rush hour," Orpin said.

"Take your time. Leave early. It's winter in Canada. Enjoy it."

Jones also says there's more bad weather on the way for southern Ontario.

"As soon as this system all pushes out, there's going to be big snowsqualls tonight in parts," she said.