Snow, rain to slow Thanksgiving travel in Rockies, Midwest and Northeast

A cross-country storm will deliver wet and wintry weather com California to Maine this week, disrupting travel for millions who plan on traveling on the days surrounding Thanksgiving.

A storm set on dumping snow in California’s Sierra Nevada early this week will spread snow to the Colorado Rockies at midweek and then on to the Appalachians by Thanksgiving Day, AccuWeather meteorologists say. 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.

Close to 80 million people will travel at least 50 miles from home during the days surrounding Thanksgiving this year, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA). Weather-related impacts are likely to be far-reaching this year.

“We are tracking a storm moving ashore in Northern California into Tuesday that will have rainy and snowy implications in the East two days later,” AccuWeather Chief On-Air Meteorologist Bernie Rayno said. “There are many variables we are still analyzing with this storm with track and intensity being the keys to where the rain and snow line will set up and the amount of snow that will fall in the Midwest and Northeast.”

Soon after dumping multiple feet of snow on the Sierra Nevada into Tuesday night with the potential for road closures along Interstate 80 at Donner Pass, California, the same storm will move swiftly along and unload snow on a busy sector in the Rockies and High Plains on Wednesday.

While a blockbuster storm is not forecast for Denver, up to a few inches of snow may fall around the major travel hub, slowing travel along the Interstate 25, 70 and 80 corridors.

A general 6-12 inches of snow is forecast to fall on Utah’s Wasatch Range and the Colorado Rockies, with an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 50 inches from Tuesday to Wednesday night. The anticipated deep snow over many of the West’s mountains is a great time for skiing enthusiasts to enjoy around the Thanksgiving break.

The storm will tiptoe over much of Texas and lower elevations on the southern Plains at midweek.

As the storm shifts eastward, it will gather more moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and later the Atlantic and gain some strength from Wednesday night to Thursday night as it treks through the eastern United States.

“How much the storm strengthens in the East will determine not only how far north it will track but also the approximate boundary between rain and snow and whether the snow struggles to accumulate or piles up enough to create slippery travel,” Rayno said.

There are two main scenarios with the situation later this week in the East.

“A weaker storm will tend to skip out more to the east with intermittent rain and little to no snow over the Appalachians,” Rayno explained. “But a stronger storm would tend to track farther to the north, with somewhat heavier precipitation and a zone of accumulating snow, most likely from the central Appalachians to interior New England.”

If the storm becomes significantly strong, it could track well to the north and deliver accumulating snow to portions of the Midwest and the eastern Great Lakes region.

At this time, AccuWeather meteorologists believe there will be a zone where snow or a mixture of rain and snow will fall on the colder northern side of the storm through the Midwest and Northeast with likely a narrow band or pockets where several inches of snow will fall with slippery travel.

Accumulating snow will likely be somewhere along the I-70 to I-80 corridor from Illinois to Ohio in the Midwest. 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 may tend to be fragmented–favoring the higher elevations.

Rain is forecast to fall along and south of the Ohio River and the southern Appalachians from late Wednesday to Thursday and soak much of the I-95 corridor of the mid-Atlantic and central and southern New England from Thursday to Thursday night. This includes Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Charlotte, Philadelphia, New York City, Boston and Washington, D.C.

Another hazard will be heavy to locally severe thunderstorms from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama on Wednesday night to Georgia and South Carolina on Thursday.

Wind gusts in some storms can knock down tree limbs and trigger sporadic power outages. Downpours can lead to brief urban flooding. In a couple of the strongest storms, there could be a brief tornado.

Along with the rain, there could be locally dense fog. The combination of rain and fog will make for wet roads and poor visibility, which can lead to delays on the highways and a greater risk of accidents due to increased holiday volume.

Because of the expansion of rainy and snowy conditions expected during some of the busiest travel days of the year, motorists are encouraged to allow extra time to get to their destination and remain alert for changing weather and traffic conditions.

While a blockbuster storm is not expected in the major hubs east of the Mississippi River, even a small amount of rain, snow and fog can be enough, when combined with holiday volume, to multiply airline delays and flight cancellations significantly.

The coldest air of the season so far will sweep in on the backside of the Thanksgiving storm across the Central and Eastern states. A major lake-effect snow outbreak lasting several days will unfold with shifting bands of intense snow that can lead to whiteouts, major drifting snow and road closures. Feet of snow will pile up in the most persistent snow bands.

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