CNN
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As Christmas approaches and an expected record number of people begin traveling across the country, travel problems may arise as winter storms threaten delays.

While no major winter storms are expected in the days leading up to Christmas, several smaller storms could pose challenges for both last-minute shoppers and travelers.

More than 119 million people are expected to travel at least 50 miles from their homes between Saturday and New Year’s Day, according to AAA Projects, which would mark the busiest year-end holiday travel season on record. And the TSA said it expects to screen nearly 40 million people through Jan. 2, with the busiest days expected to be Friday, Dec. 27 and Dec. 30.

Fortunately, since a government shutdown was averted early Saturday, the TSA agents and air traffic controllers working during the travel rush won’t be without a paycheck. There were earlier fears that a shutdown could potentially impact one of the busiest travel times of the year, but the Senate passed emergency funding legislation overnight.

With the headaches gone, all eyes turn to Mother Nature as she prepares to deliver a dose of winter weather that could impact travel in parts of the country.

A storm that moved across the northern Plains and Upper Midwest earlier this week will impact the Northeast into Saturday, bringing a possible few inches of snow to interior portions of the Northeast and a chance of rain and light to major metropolitan areas bring snowfall.

According to the National Weather Service, the storm will impact major metropolitan areas in the Northeast through Saturday. Washington, DC, New York City, Philadelphia and Boston could see snow Saturday, but skies should clear by the afternoon. Snowfall should be no more than 1 inch in these major cities, while up to 6 inches of snow could fall in the interior Northeast and parts of the Appalachian Mountains.

The cold associated with this storm will produce some of the coldest temperatures of the season in parts of the East over the weekend.

High temperatures for some will drop 30 degrees from highs earlier this week. The high temperature in Atlanta will be 47 degrees on Saturday, compared to 73 degrees on Wednesday. Highs in Raleigh, North Carolina, reached 73 degrees on Wednesday, but will continue to drop over the weekend, reaching a high below 40 degrees on Sunday.

Southern cities such as Atlanta, Dallas, Little Rock, Arkansas and Memphis, Tennessee could see overnight temperatures around freezing or below over the weekend.

New York City reached a high of 53 degrees on Wednesday, but on Sunday the high will fall below freezing, with lows in the teens. This cold will not last as long in the Northeast as it has in the Midwest and will begin to warm up early next week, especially around Christmas. In Minneapolis, the temperature has been below freezing since Monday and is not expected to remain above freezing until next Monday, with highs of 34 degrees.

Travelers in Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport has already felt the effects of the winter weather, with two ground stops ordered there on Thursday due to snow and ice.

“We left our house at exactly 9 a.m. and it was supposed to be a 30-minute drive, but it turned into an hour,” traveler Sam Lilija told CNN affiliate WCCO.

Chicago O’Hare International Airport was shut down for 45 minutes early Friday morning due to dangerous weather conditions. Planes were de-iced at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport Friday morning, the FAA reported.

As this storm moves offshore and precipitation tapers off Saturday, the first of a series of new storm systems will hit much of the West Coast, increasing the chance of precipitation from San Francisco to Seattle.

This first storm could bring higher elevation snowfall and valley rains across the Rocky Mountains and eventually move into the Midwest and Great Lakes by the start of Christmas week. Cities like Chicago and Detroit could see rain and snow on Monday.

This storm will move east across the Great Lakes on Monday, increasing the chance of precipitation from the Southern Plains to the Ohio River Valley. Rain and snow may occur in the northeast. The chance of precipitation on Christmas Day shifts slightly east, from Louisiana to Massachusetts.

The second western storm was expected to follow in the footsteps of the first and move ashore on Christmas Eve. Higher elevation snow and valley rain could occur on the West Coast on Tuesday before moving into the Intermountain West on Wednesday and moving into the central region of the U.S. on Thursday.