A powerful blizzard roared out of the southwestern United States early Monday, threatening residents from Arizona to Kansas with a foot or more of snow.

Combined with strong winds and icy roads, the snow could make driving during the holidays dangerous across the region.

Snow, falling at a rate of up to two inches an hour, is expected in the mountains of Arizona and New Mexico, the National Weather Service said.

The snow is forecast to start battering northeast New Mexico on Monday morning. State emergency personnel and transportation crews there are on call, officials say, ready to act if and when the storm hits hard.

The National Weather Service has issued a blizzard warning for much of Monday and Tuesday in large swaths of northeast New Mexico, southeast Colorado, southwest Kansas, northern Texas and the Oklahoma Panhandle.

That means places like Santa Rosa, New Mexico, and Springfield, Colorado, could see up to 2 feet of snow, though 8 inches to 16 inches will more likely be the norm and lesser amounts may fall in other locales. That snow will combine with potent winds, which are expected to be between 25 and 45 mph in spots.

The storm is the product of a “sharp blast of cold air” from the north that will turn rain into snow and possibly lead to “white-out conditions,” the weather service said.

(Source: CNN)