■ A powerful storm moved eastward, complicating holiday weekend travel.

Bodies of two children recovered in Arizona

Wintry weather bedeviled Thanksgiving weekend travelers across the United States on Saturday as a powerful and dangerous storm moved eastward, dumping heavy snow from parts of California to the northern Midwest and inundating other areas with rain.

Authorities found the bodies of two children, including a 5-year-old boy, and a third child was missing in central Arizona after a vehicle was swept away while trying to cross a runoff-swollen creek. A storm-related death also was reported in South Dakota.

The National Weather Service said the storm was expected to drop 6 to 12 inches of snow from the northern Plains states into Minnesota, Wisconsin and Upper Michigan.

Blizzard conditions were already buffeting the High Plains. Duluth, Minnesota, issued a “no travel advisory” starting at noon Saturday because of a major snow storm it termed “historic.”

Farther south, rain and thunderstorms were forecast along and ahead of the cold front, with heavy rainfall possible in parts of the Tennessee and Ohio valleys.

Forecasters said a new storm is expected to bring California several feet of mountain snow, rain and gusty winds through the weekend. Another system is forecast to develop in the mid-Atlantic on Sunday, moving as a nor’easter into Monday.

Airlines at O’Hare International and Midway International in Chicago reported average delays of 15 minutes as a winter storm headed toward the Midwest with snow and ice and gusty winds.

The companies said they had canceled 27 flights at O’Hare and two at Midway as people scrambled to get home on the year’s busiest travel weekend.

At Denver International Airport, there were 100 flights canceled Saturday because of high winds.

“Tomorrow, the airlines anticipate to be the busiest travel day of the Thanksgiving period at both O’Hare and Midway,” said Karen Pride, a spokeswoman for the Chicago Department of Aviation. “Everybody thinks the day before Thanksgiving is the busiest ; it is not.”

Authorities in the West were still grappling Saturday with the aftermath of rain and snow.

In Arizona, officials the found body of the 5-year-old about 3 miles downstream from where the vehicle they were riding in was swept away Friday, Gila County sheriff ’s Lt. Virgil Dodd said. The second of the three children was found later Saturday. Officials didn’t provide the age and gender of the second child or the third child who was still missing.

The agency said Saturday two other children and two adults who were in the vehicle were rescued from a small island and the bank of the creek in Tonto National Forest northeast of Phoenix.

Alex McIntyre The Associated Press A woman and a child cope with a windy and snowy Saturday in Greeley, Colo., which canceled its Greeley Lights the Night parade.