Dreams of white Christmas came true in these regions

Dreams of a White Christmas came true for some folks in the central U.S. as they awoke to blankets of snow. Elsewhere Americans began the day with rain and unseasonably warm weather.

The National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center said Monday people in the central plains from Kansas up through North Dakota and Minnesota were in for a snowy day as winter weather alerts flurried out across the region.

The center predicted hazardous holiday travel in that region as high winds, icing and dense snow were expected to diminish visibility and complicate travel on roads and at airports.

"Treacherous travel conditions, slippery sidewalks, and isolated power outages due to ice are expected," the center said in its briefing. "By Tuesday, the winter storm will gradually weaken but still produce a combination of heavy snow and blowing snow, shifting more westward into the central High Plains."

A White Christmas in the Plains, Upper Midwest, Alaska

A winter storm is expected to dump an inch to 15 inches of snow across the Great Plains and Upper Midwest as a large storm swarms much of the region, according to the NWS.

Nebraska and South Dakota are expected to be impacted the most by the storm and blizzard alerts were issued. Parts of northeastern Colorado and northwestern Kansas also have blizzard alerts in place. The National Weather Service in Omaha, Nebraska, said on X that accumulating snow is expected throughout most of the evening.

Wind gusts up to 45 mph were also expected, creating whiteout conditions throughout the day.

For South Dakota, the National Weather Service in Rapid City, South Dakota, said on X that the worst of the storm is expected to hit Monday night and continue into Tuesday, with wind gusts up to 55 mph.

The National Weather Service in Juneau, Alaska, said a winter storm along the state's panhandle will bring heavy snow, accumulating up to 15 inches. The station encouraged people to not travel unless it was an emergency. Crews reopened Seward Highway, which connects Anchorage to the scenic Kenai Peninsula, Sunday after an avalanche forced a closure near its intersection with the Sterling Highway, according to the Alaska Department of Transportation.

Wet weather, gray skies east of the Mississippi River

Those in the Great Lakes region down to the southeast should expect rain Christmas Day as the NWS predicted and an occasional thunderstorm as a cold front moves across the country.

A handful of flood alerts were issued for parts of the Carolinas and Georgia in conjunction with the storm.

Temperatures in the Great Lakes and parts of the Upper Midwest are expected to be 15 to 25 degrees above normal, the NWS Prediction Center said. Along the East Coast, temperatures were set to be 10 to 15 degrees above normal.

The center said that Tuesday will be "exceptionally mild" in the Great Lakes and East Coast, with record-breaking warm minimum temperatures scattered in the Great Lakes region.

Rockies, West treated with sunny skies

Christmas Day is sunny for those in the Rockies, Southwest and parts of the West, according to NWS sky cover radar.

Snow is expected for part of the northern Rockies and Cascades Range, with rainfall expected throughout the mountain ranges.

The NWS Prediction Center said the region will be the coolest in the country, with temperatures forecasted as high as the 40s for the north and 50s for the south.

"Conditions will be around average for the West, with 30s and 40s for the Great Basin, 50s and 60s along the coast, and 60s and 70s into the Desert Southwest," the center said.

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Contact reporter Krystal Nurse at [email protected]. Follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @KrystalRNurse.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Plains, Upper Midwest wake up to a white Christmas