The Thanksgiving travel rush is expected to be bigger than ever this year. AAA predicts that nearly 80 million people in the U.S. will venture at least 50 miles (80 kilometers) from home between Tuesday and next Monday.
Another round of wintry weather could complicate travel, though. California and Washington state continue to recover from damage and power outages from last week’s storms. And an ongoing shortage of air traffic controllers could cause flight delays at some airports.
Meanwhile, workers at Charlotte Douglas International Airport began what was expected to be a 24-hour strike on Monday over their demands for higher wages. Only a handful of flights were canceled, and there were fewer than 100 delays.
Here’s the latest:
A storm system currently moving across the West Coast is expected to bring heavy snow on Wednesday to the Colorado Rockies, the Bitterroot Range in Idaho and Montana and the Wasatch Mountains of Utah, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Weather Prediction Center reported.
On Thanksgiving Day, forecasters are predicting rain showers across portions of the Mid-South and the Ohio River Valley, with Arctic air plunging into the upper Plains, dropping temperatures into the teens and 20s.
More bitter cold is forecast for Friday from the Plains to the Great Lakes region, with high temperatures as low as 25 degrees below average and wind chills making it feel even colder.
On Saturday, near record-warm temperatures in all of the Great Lakes are expected to lead to a round of lake-effect snow, including heavy snowfall downwind of Lakes Ontario and Erie, NOAA reported.
Forecasters expect cold conditions to persist across the Northeast and Midwest on Sunday but don’t anticipate the wintry weather to cause travel delays on interstates or airports.
Lake-effect snow is expected to continue on Sunday across a wide swathe of the U.S. from Michigan to New York.
“As the holiday season kicks off this week, people are traveling more and have higher levels of stress,” Arkansas State Police Col. Mike Hagar said in a statement. “Road rage is a lose/lose situation that could cost you your life.”
The Arkansas State Police has reported an increase in road rage and aggressive driving, with more than 700 road rage cases reported so far in 2024, including 300 cases involving weapons. In 2023, the Associated Press investigated 284 road rage incidents with weapons.
The ASP urges people who encounter an aggressive driver to avoid engaging…
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