Two powerful winter storms hammered the West Coast and Midwest on Wednesday, shutting down highways and snarling travel plans on one of the nation's busiest travel days.
Weather watches, warnings and alerts were posted across much of the western half of the nation after a storm that had been a "bomb cyclone" marched westward from the California coast, AccuWeather reported.
Hundreds of stranded cars were removed from Interstate 5 headed north from California into Oregon in the aftermath of the storm that dumped snow and created whiteout conditions on both sides of the California-Oregon border.
As the skies cleared Wednesday, drivers reported being stuck for 17 or more hours in blizzard conditions and some spent the night in their vehicles.
Farther south, winter storm warnings were in effect for the mountains near Los Angeles into early Friday with 6 to 12 inches of snow forecast for most mountains, except 12 to 24 inches for the San Gabriels, the National Weather Service in Los Angeles warned.
"Expect significant travel delays and road closures with dangerous winter driving conditions," the weather service said.
Comment: Heavy snow on one end, 'bomb cyclone' on the other threatens U.S. Thanksgiving travel