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Driving for Thanksgiving? What to know about road conditions amid busiest travel days.

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1 week ago

November 26, 2024

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Driving for Thanksgiving? What to know about road conditions amid busiest travel days.

Editor’s note: Follow USA TODAY’s Wednesday coverage of the Thanksgiving 2024 weather forecast and travel updates.

With the Thanksgiving holiday nearly upon us, weather forecasters now have a good idea of where the likely trouble spots will be for drivers on the days before and after Thursday.

Unfortunately, a cross-country storm is forecast to deliver wet and wintry weather from California to Maine throughout the week, potentially disrupting travel for the millions who plan on traveling on the days surrounding Thanksgiving, according to AccuWeather.

“Significant travel disruptions are anticipated for tens of millions that take to the roads and skies, even in areas where rain and thunderstorms occur instead of snow,” said AccuWeather meteorologist Alex Sosnowski in an online forecast.

Here’s how the weather could affect road conditions over what the American Automobile Association has called the busiest travel holiday.

Snow closes roads in the West, slows traffic around Denver

The storm has already begun to rack up road closures in the West as it dumped heavy snow across the Sierra Nevada before moving swiftly along and unloading snow on a busy sector in the Rockies and High Plains on Wednesday.

By Wednesday morning, the Colorado Department of Transportation website showed dozens of roads were closed because of snow, including U.S. Route 50, a major highway that runs across the country from West Sacramento, California, to Ocean City, Maryland.

“Long-duration moderate to heavy snowfall rates will make mountain driving conditions very difficult today,” the agency said in a statement Wednesday. “While the heavy volume of snow will contribute to the majority of impacts, stronger winds will also support areas of blowing snow and reduced visibility, especially over the passes in the central and southern mountains today.”

One spot where travelers might want to leave extra early is Denver, a major travel hub, which will likely see only a couple inches of snow Wednesday, but it could be enough to delay flights and slow travel along Interstate 25, 70 and 80, AccuWeather warns.

Next, the storm will head east.

Wet, stormy Wednesday for central US roads

Wednesday will be the stormiest day of the week for the central U.S., as the storm brings a mix of rain and snow from the Upper Midwest to Texas.

According to Weather.com, some light rain and a few thunderstorms are forecast to develop in the mid-Mississippi Valley, Ohio Valley and Mid-South region. This activity will spread into the East Wednesday night.

The Storm Prediction Center warns that “Isolated strong to severe storms are possible from the lower Mississippi Valley into parts of Alabama, primarily from late Wednesday night into early Thursday morning.” This includes travelers along Interstates 20 and 55 in Mississippi.

Snow could impact roads in the Midwest, Northeast

A swath of accumulating snow is expected from the Midwest to northern New England from late Wednesday into Thanksgiving Day.

In the Midwest, accumulating snow will likely be somewhere along the I-70 to I-80 corridor from Illinois to Ohio.

In the Northeast, moderate to heavy snowfall is most likely over northern New England and the higher elevations in central New England. In between, over Pennsylvania and New York state, the accumulating snow will likely favor the higher elevations, AccuWeather said.

Lake-effect snow could lead to ‘difficult to impossible’ travel in NY

Finally, in what might be the biggest weather story for the return trip over the weekend, a big lake-effect snow event could wreak travel havoc on Interstate 90 in western New York.

“Travel could be very difficult to impossible with very poor visibility and deep snow cover on roads,” the National Weather Service in Buffalo warned. “Some major roadways could temporarily close.”

“While there is some risk of a heavy snow band shifting into Buffalo, New York, briefly, most of the time, winds will be from the west and northwest and will direct the heaviest snow from the towns south of Buffalo to western New York’s ski country,” AccuWeather meteorologist Grady Gilman said.

(This story has been updated to add new information.)

Contributing: Christopher Cann, Zach Wichter and Kathleen Wong, USA TODAY