A potentially powerful and first-of-the-season winter storm was expected to bring high winds, blowing snow, treacherous driving conditions and travel delays to the region today.

Winds of 30 to 40 miles per hours are forecast for today. A portion of the storm scheduled to pass through Ohio today on the first day of winter triggered blizzard conditions in the Upper Midwest Thursday, cutting power to tens of thousands of homes and grounding hundreds of flights.

While blizzard conditions are not in the local forecast, light snowfall is expected to continue through this evening, with total snowfall expected to reach two to four inches with heaviest accumulations in northern counties, according to Storm Center 7 Meteorologist McCall Vrydaghs. The region is under a wind advisory until 4 p.m. today, and a winter weather advisory is in effect until 10 p.m. tonight.

Temperatures are expected to continue the slide that started Thursday afternoon, reaching the 20s tonight, with wind-chill readings dropping into the single digits.

The storm is expected to make driving treacherous today, a day thousands in the region use to travel for the Christmas holiday.

“We will see icy patches with snow on top of the ice,” Vrydaghs said. “I expect slick spots with black ice and blowing snow.”

The highs today will reach about 30, but the wind chill is not projected to rise above the teens. The strong winds have the potential to create problems for high-profile vehicles such as tractor-trailers, Vrydaghs said, and blowing snow will reduce visibility.

Cindy Antrican, public affairs manager for AAA Allied Group, urged drivers to be particularly cautious, since the last two winters brought few major winter storms. Antrican noted that some young drivers have never before driven in icy conditions.

The Ohio Department of Transportation put snowplow/salt truck crews in western Ohio on call starting at midnight, a spokeswoman said. Because of Thursday’s rain, pre-treating the road surfaces was not an option, the ODOT spokeswoman said.

AAA recommends drivers take extra precautions to avoid distractions, turn off their car’s cruise control, avoid tailgating, and use their brakes properly on slippery services. When travelling over 25 mph in wintry conditions, AAA recommends steering rather than braking to avoid a collision in wintry conditions, because sudden braking can lead to loss of vehicle control, and less distance is required to steer around an object than to brake to a stop.

Shaded spots, bridges, overpasses and intersections will become ice-covered first and will be the most slippery, Antrican said.

Air travel also may be disrupted today by the winter storm that slammed large portions of the Midwest. Antrican recommended those with flight plans check their airline before departing for the airport. Even if weather here is not severe, bad weather in other regions can cause flight cancellations that ripple throughout the airlines’ flight schedules, she said.

The first wave of that disruption surfaced as early as Thursday afternoon: Dayton, Cincinnati and Columbus airports all were showing multiple flights arriving from or departing to Chicago were delayed or cancelled. The same winter storm hitting Ohio today swept through Chicago several hours earlier, and FlightStats said nearly 500 flights had already been canceled at the two major Chicago airports, and 700 were reporting delays, on Thursday, according to ChicagoTribune.com.