Monday, November 25, 2013

Thanksgiving travel mess looms

(UPDATE:  I'll be doing a live online chat at 11 a.m. Wednesday at www.charlotteobserver.com.  We'll talk about Thanksgiving holiday weather and holiday travel.  If you want to shoot me some questions about the upcoming winter, I'll try to deal with those if we have the time.)

The storm system responsible for the weekend's icy conditions and hundreds of flight delays and cancellations in Texas is moving eastward and still threatening to make a mess of Thanksgiving travel plans.

The Charlotte area will avoid frozen precipitation from this storm, and the rain likely will end by Wednesday morning.  But this storm has the potential of fouling up flight schedules along the East Coast.  That, of course, has a ripple effect which would be felt in Charlotte.

And regardless of the storm's impact on flight schedules, it will make for nasty traveling conditions Wednesday for people headed north and even east from Charlotte.

Latest indications are that the storm's snow will be limited to inland areas, with the heaviest snow falling in a band from central New York up into Vermont and eastern Ontario and western Quebec. However, several inches of snow are likely in parts of West Virginia and in the western half of Pennsylvania.
Along the Interstate 95 corridor, it looks to be a rain event.  The rain could fall heavily at times late Tuesday and Wednesday, which will make for bad driving conditions up I-95 and I-81.

Added to all this will be gusty winds Wednesday.

The impact on air travel is still uncertain. If low visibilities and heavy rain develop Wednesday along the I-95 corridor from Richmond up to Boston, that will cause flight delays. Typically, as the delays build, the impact spreads to locations far from the storm's effects.  That is the potential problem Wednesday.

We'll keep close tabs on travel conditions Tuesday and Wednesday.

The good news is that conditions look to be a lot quieter at the end of the weekend, when Thanksgiving travelers are returning home.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just in from Douglas, the Concord Groundhog:

"You may see a little rain, but it won't be cold enough to freeze nothin'. You don't need no bread or milk. Jes' sayin'."

Kevin R. said...

I am new to Charlotte. Who among these guys can I put my utmost trust in for the weather?

Brad Panovich
Larry Sprinkle
Al Conklin
Eric Thomas



Anonymous said...

Kevin R.

Do NOT ever trust Brad Panovich. He is the weather freakcaster. He has a freakmeter thing that tells people when to strip the local food shelves when snow is coming. He makes weather forecasting a joke. I tune to channel 9 or 3 for my weather or use my Direct TV weather remote.

Mark

Anonymous said...

Really, I don't know why people must freak out the days before Thanksgiving and jam the highways to a dead-stop parking lot. I don't leave for my parents place till the very early AM hours of Turkey Day to see them when traffic is virtually non-existent, meaning I have the road all to myself. Just the way I love to travel.

Have a HAPPY and SAFE THANKSGIVING wherever you are headed and remember there is ALWAYS something to be THANKFUL for, no matter the curveballs life throws at us.

Anonymous said...

Ashley Batey on WBTV-3. She good.

Unknown said...

туры в сша
Wintry mess rolls East as big travel day looms on WBIR.com: ... to create delays at major East Coast airports at peak Thanksgiving travel time. туры по Калифорнии

Tebs the Turkey said...

I am very happy to have only a short drive of less than two hours up I-85 on Thursday morning. Good luck to those who maybe stuck in this potential travel ruckus.

Anonymous said...

Another "weather-worry" bust. Hype over nothing. Never anything to fret or worry about.

Anonymous said...

What mess? Was this a joke?