Thanksgiving Winter Storms Forecasted Across US—Here’s Where Travel Could Be Disrupted
Topline
Winter storm warnings going into the week of Thanksgiving stretch from California to the East Coast and the potential for snow—particularly in the Northeast—could impact plans as travel is expected to rebound to pre-pandemic levels for the first time.
Traffic during a snowstorm in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Feb. 22, 2023.
Key Facts
Winter storms are expected for California and Nevada’s Sierra Nevada mountains through Wednesday, the National Weather Service warns, with up to 3 feet of snow falling at higher elevations.
Monday is expected to bring snow to Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Great Lakes region of Michigan.
Parts of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and the Eastern Adirondacks of New York under a winter weather advisory for Tuesday morning, with freezing rain and icy road conditions expected to impact travel.
A cold front is expected to sweep the country starting Wednesday but, as of now, forecasters expect temperatures in New England to stay high enough that the precipitation it brings with it will be mostly rain to areas from Boston to New York City, and those traveling by car should be prepared for heavy rain.
Uncertainty still swirls around where exactly snow may fall on Thanksgiving Day and Friday, but upstate New York, New Hampshire and Maine could see powder.
A surge of cold the weekend after Thanksgiving will send freezing weather to the Great Lakes Midwest and Northeast with high temperatures in the 20s expected in Chicago, Pittsburgh and Columbus, Ohio.
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What To Watch For
How weather impacts travel. Almost 80 million people are expected to travel more than 50 miles between Tuesday and next Monday for the holiday. Car travel is expected to overtake pre-pandemic levels—70.6 million people drove to their Thanksgiving destinations in 2019, AAA reports, and 71.7 million are expected to do so this year. Almost 6 million people are expected to fly domestically, up 11% from 2019 and international bookings are up 23% compared to last Thanksgiving. Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons are the worst time to travel by car, AAA reported, with road congestion also expected almost all day Sunday, particularly after 1 p.m.
Tangent
It’s been five years since Thanksgiving brought seriously destructive winter weather to portions of the United States. In 2019, a bomb cyclone brought almost hurricane-force winds to the West Coast and rains that flooded San Diego. Hail fell in Los Angeles the day before Thanksgiving, and three members of an Arizona family died after their truck was swept away in a flooded creek. The year before, in 2018, New York City saw the coldest Thanksgiving since 1901 when temperatures in Central Park hit 19 degrees and East Coast other cities, including Washington D.C., also had near record-breakingly cold temperatures.
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