Thank goodness for travelers who have already reached their vacation destinations, as the Thanksgiving storm brought snow and rain to the East Coast, creating travel hardships for thousands of travelers still on the road. There are many things to do.
According to the National Weather Service, a “dynamic mid-latitude low pressure system” produced scattered showers and thunderstorms that spread to the East Coast on Thursday.
Heavy snow continues into the evening in the interior Northeast, with a chance of overnight snow showers across Maine. A winter storm warning is in effect from eastern New York to central and northern New England, with the potential for more than a foot of fresh snow, NWS forecasters said.
The National Weather Service in Bangor, Maine, announced that a winter storm warning is in effect until 7 a.m. Friday, with snow and rain expected to continue overnight.
More than 32,000 customers were without power Thursday night in Penobscot County, Bangor, and several other counties, according to power company tracking service PowerOutage.us.
Air and road travel was relatively smooth until the morning of Thanksgiving Eve, when a heavy snow storm in the Rocky Mountains forced de-icing of departing planes in Denver and Salt Lake City. More than 700 flights were delayed at Denver International Airport yesterday, according to FlightAware data. By Thursday night, departures and arrivals at Denver Airport had been delayed by less than 15 minutes, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The FAA also said Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, a key hub for United Airlines, experienced a 95-minute delay Wednesday due to a lack of air traffic controllers. The delay was lifted Thursday morning. Newark experienced more than 400 delays Wednesday and Thursday morning.
Chris Wilbanks, the FAA’s vice president for safety and technical training, told NBC News’ Tom Costello that the time it takes to be fully staffed and “comfortable” to deploy new air traffic controllers is “5 to 5”. He said it would take “7 years.”
The airports with the most delays Thursday night were New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport, Los Angeles International Airport and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, according to FlightAware’s Misery Map.
Meanwhile, a record 71.1 million people are expected to travel by car over the Thanksgiving holiday, already congesting roads and congesting highways, according to AAA.
Angel Ruiz said he was traveling hours from Tulare, Calif., to Los Angeles International Airport, where he planned to go to Guatemala to visit family. He said the trip to the airport, which would normally take three hours, took longer than the flight.
“We were probably traveling for about six hours before we got on the plane to Guatemala City,” Ruiz said. “It’s not a good time to travel, but I’m really looking forward to seeing my family.”
Drivers should watch for rain and occasional snow conditions heading into the East Coast on Thursday.
Meanwhile, areas downwind of Lakes Ontario and Erie, including Cleveland, Erie and Buffalo, are under a lake-effect snow warning through Sunday. Hazardous travel conditions are expected with up to 2 inches of snow expected per hour. Snow totals through the weekend will range from 4 to 6 inches to several feet with the heaviest snow bands developing.
Further cold weather is expected as Siberian air is sucked south, bringing frigid temperatures to large parts of the country, the coldest air of the season.
As a result of this cold front, daytime high temperatures are expected to be in the 30s to low 40s, 10 to 20 degrees below normal, from Omaha, Nebraska to south of New York.
The National Weather Service in Minneapolis and St. Paul said less than an inch of snow would fall on Thursday, before wind chills picked up in parts of the region, with lows reaching as low as -15 degrees.
In New York City, the rain eased late Thursday, with temperatures in the 30s and expected to continue to drop, the National Weather Service said.
Nighttime lows will be below freezing along the Gulf Coast. From Saturday through Monday, nighttime temperatures will reach the 10s in Chicago. In the ’20s, New York, St. Louis, Charleston, South Carolina, Nashville, Tennessee, and Raleigh, North Carolina. And in Atlanta, I was in my early 30s.
The biggest task will likely be Sunday, when an expected 3 million people will be forced to pass through Transportation Security Administration checkpoints and return home.
NBC News’ Costello said Sunday’s 12 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Monday’s 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. would be the worst driving times for people driving home.
