Mother Nature doesn’t care about your turkey or your family. The first major weather mess of the winter—at least outside of Buffalo, N.Y.—is expected to arrive Wednesday just as some 46 million depart to reach loved ones in time for Thanksgiving.
With gasoline prices less than $3 per gallon across most of the nation, more people are planning to travel this Thanksgiving—the most in seven years, according to AAA. At the same time, a population of about 20 million people on the East Coast is already covered by winter storm warnings or watches, with Tuesday night’s rain expected to be followed by snow on Wednesday, Nov. 26. Not an optimal mix.
Most travelers this holiday weekend will be driving, and from Maine to Virginia they can anticipate two to 12 inches of snow. Higher accumulations are likely farther north and west. The New York metro area should receive four to six inches, with Baltimore, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington all expecting as much as three inches. The heaviest snowfall is likely to be in the higher elevations of Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and New York.
For science-minded folks, the Weather Channel offers a deep dive into the meteorology that, by Wednesday evening, could serve as a handy explanation why you’re stuck on the roads or at an airport.
For air travelers, on the other hand, there’s a particularly painful factor of a winter storm just before Thanksgiving: the huge number of infrequent fliers crowded into the airports. Many Americans fly only at Thanksgiving or Christmas. That means security protocols—shoes off in this TSA line, keep them on in that other one—could drag on longer than expected. Best advice: deep breaths and a little understanding. “I would pack your patience,” AAA New York spokesman Robert Sinclair Jr. told the Associated Press.
Airlines are already offering fee-free ticket changes for customers scheduled to travel Wednesday, allowing for earlier or later flights to avoid the snow. United’s (UAL) waiver includes 23 cities from Washington, D.C., north to Maine, while American (AAL), Delta (DAL), JetBlue (JBLU), and Southwest (LUV) all provide flexibility to more than a dozen destinations. Even Spirit (SAVE) includes five. If you can’t get where you are going Tuesday, forecasters say Thursday morning is probably a better bet.
The airlines remained optimistic on Tuesday, hours before the bad weather is expected to start. “It’s not looking to be a large-scale disruption unless forecasts change,” Delta spokesman Morgan Durrant said in an e-mail. In storm operations, the big airlines typically delay and cancel their regional flights before their mainline services, which could be problematic if you are traveling to or from a smaller town.
Bad weather or not, traveling during the busiest week of the year means allowing plenty of extra time—in both cars and airports.
