CHICAGO (Reuters) - A major U.S. winter storm, which started Tuesday in the Rocky Mountains, could dump more than a foot of snow in some areas of the central Plains late Wednesday, the National Weather Service said. "It has evolved into a full-fledged blizzard around the Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas border area," said Alex Sosnowski, meteorologist for Accuweather.com. The storm marks a major change from the mild December so far in most of the nation. Many parts of the country could see a White Christmas. Winds as high as 66 miles per hour (106 km per hour) were blowing dust and sand in western Texas, causing a string of traffic accidents along Interstate 27 north of Lubbock on Wednesday afternoon. More than 20 cars were involved in accidents that killed one person and injured 17 others along a 5-mile (8-km) stretch of road. Corporal John Gonzalez, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, said the fatality involved a semi-trailer crashing with a sports utility vehicle, killing the person in the SUV. The injuries to the other 17 people were minor to moderate, he said. "You could hear them in the dirt" crashing, Gonzalez said. But you couldn't see them. You couldn't see nothing out there. Couldn't see the front hood of your vehicle. In western Nebraska, the State Patrol closed a 146-mile portion of Interstate 80 between Kearney and Ogallala Wednesday evening because blowing snow reduced visibility and caused treacherous driving conditions. The patrol said extremely dangerous weather conditions were forecast through the overnight hours across a good portion of the state, and travel was not recommended. Crane said a stretch of Interstate 70 in the mountains near the ski resort of Vail was closed temporarily on Wednesday so crews could do work to prevent avalanches. Additional reporting by Keith Coffman in Denver and Matthew Waller in San Angelo, Texas; Reporting By Mary Wisniewski; Editing by Greg McCune, Bob Burgdorfer and Lisa Shumaker