Thanksgiving storm threatens parts of the US as millions travel for the holiday

A blast of frigid Arctic air will start creeping into the northern tier of the US Wednesday and will eventually spread out to a huge part of the country through the holiday weekend.

Chicago will struggle to reach the mid-30s on Thanksgiving — a temperature more appropriate for late December. Parts of North Dakota will barely reach the teens and will feel more like January.

Millions from coast-to-coast will be frigid by Friday. Low temperatures early Friday morning will plummet below zero in the Dakotas and drop to the teens and single digits in much of the north-central US.

Many areas in the central and eastern US will face their coldest temperatures of the season over the weekend. Philadelphia and New York City could see highs in the 30s for the first time since February.

This cold air mass is expected to linger into December, with forecasts suggesting it could last through the first week of the new month.

Below average temperatures (blues and purples) expand over the US through the weekend.

Parade marchers and spectators are in for a chilly, wet morning at this year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City.

A Thanksgiving storm will roll through the East and spread miserable, cold rain over New York City and surrounding areas. Air temperatures will hover around 42 degrees when the parade steps off at 8:30 a.m. and rain will be ongoing.

Temperatures won’t climb much and could only get to around 46 by the time the parade ends at noon and rain will continue afterward.

Sustained winds will largely remain under 10 mph with minimal gusts, so the parade’s iconic balloons will be able to fly.

The balloons are grounded when sustained winds exceed 23 mph and gusts surpass 34 mph.

Sugar and flower for the upcoming Thanksgiving Holiday are shown for sale in a grocery store in Encinitas, California, on November, 25.

For some, there’s hesitancy towards making a big trip for Thanksgiving this year.

According to Bankrate, 83% of holiday travelers are changing their plans due to inflation. Some are cutting down the length of their trip, while others are picking less expensive accommodations or engaging in cheaper activities.

One reason for the hesitancy is that prices at the grocery store remain elevated to cook that classic Thanksgiving dinner. The Consumer Price Index, which measures the change in prices paid by consumers, rose to 2.6% for the last 12 months ending in October.

For Amy Knebel Larsen, 44, of Sacramento, California and her family of four, Thanksgiving won’t mean a turkey this year, but it will mean a whole lot of travel.

Her 8-year-old son Nathan is racing in a USA BMX National Championship held in Tulsa, Oklahoma. They’re boarding Southwest Airlines flights with stops in non-hazardous weather cities, Phoenix and Las Vegas, to ensure Nathan’s BMX bikes make it to his race and they don’t get stuck in any bad weather.

They also didn’t take any chances with the price. They booked their flights shortly after Southwest released its schedule, so they wouldn’t be hit with expensive flights from the rush of traveling over a big week.

It’s their third time missing out on a traditional family dinner to watch him compete, but the family wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Thanksgiving is not about the day itself, it’s just about being with the people you love,” Larsen said. “…It doesn’t matter what we’re eating or where we are.”

Delta employees try to locate passengers' luggage after cancelled and delayed flights at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in July 22.

It’s enough to give anyone already on edge about how to handle possible flight delays and cancellations yet another reason to pop an antacid or two: the prospect of delayed, lost, stolen or damaged baggage.

Here are some things you can do:

See the full list of tips and resources

Weather is the largest cause of air traffic troubles in the US and accounts for 75% of all reported delays, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

But not all weather is created equal when it comes to flight disruptions. Here are the four types of weather most likely to change your itinerary, ordered from least to most-likely, according to Kyle Struckmann, the head aviation meteorologist for the National Weather Service.

Read the full article here for more on what these weather threats can do to your flight.

President Joe Biden is pictured with John Zimmerman, chair of the National Turkey Federation, and Zimmerman's son Grant, after pardoning the national Thanksgiving turkey Peach during a ceremony at the White House in Washington, DC, on Monday, November 25.

President Joe Biden tapped into his presidential pardon power in the waning days of his tenure Monday, granting clemency to a pair of lucky turkeys and kicking off the holiday season.

“Based on their temperament and commitment to being productive members of society, I hereby pardon Peach and Blossom,” Biden said in a ceremony on the White House South Lawn.

Weighing in at 41 and 40 pounds, respectively, “Peach” and “Blossom” were hatched in Minnesota and rode the gravy train to Washington over the weekend. They spent their young lives training for their pardon, getting acclimated to loud sounds, big crowds and bright lights.

Still, Peach ruffled some feathers and let out a few errant squawks, interrupting the president, who implored the birds to “keep calm and gobble on.”

Read more about the annual turkey pardon tradition here.

People prepare to travel for the Thanksgiving holiday at John F. Kennedy Airport on Wednesday.

The Transportation Security Administration screened nearly 2.7 million passengers on Tuesday, two days before Thanksgiving.

According to TSA data, 2,694,183 passengers were screened just 2 days before the Thanksgiving holiday, compared to 2,647,461 for the same period in 2023. That is about a 1.77% increase from the same Tuesday before Thanksgiving a year ago.

The busiest days to fly will be today and Sunday, December 1 — with more than 3 million passengers expected each day.

Passengers are encouraged to visit the Canine Airport Therapy Squad when flying through Denver International Airport today.

Hug them, pet them and take pictures with them, the airport encourages.

The dogs will be available to lift travelers’ spirits at various airport concourses from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. local time today, according to the airport.

Travelers arrive at LaGuardia airport in New York, on Wednesday.

The Federal Aviation Administration may need to slow down air traffic during the busiest holiday travel times due to staffing shortages with air traffic controllers, particularly in the Northeast.

FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker says this is most likely to occur in New York, where the agency has been not been able to keep up with demand for air traffic controllers.

“During the Thanksgiving travel period, we will use traffic flow management initiatives to deal with any staffing shortages on that particular day in this airspace, and we expect to have some of those shortages. So, we’re working diligently to make sure that that can operate as efficiently as possible,” Whitaker told reporters at a Thursday press conference at Reagan National Airport outside of Washington, DC.

Earlier this year, the agency moved responsibility for handling Newark area air traffic to its facility in Philadelphia.

“This has been meant to get us healthy on a staffing level,” Whitaker said, adding that since the move there is now “strong pipeline of 28 certified controller trainees who want to work in this airspace.”

In May, FAA figures showed the agency will still about 3,000 controllers short. In September, FAA announced that it had met its hiring goal of more than 1800 hires for the year but did not say how many controllers it would net after attrition and retirements.

Staffing isn’t the only factor that could impact air traffic. Whitaker said the agency is “closely watching the weather, which is of course the biggest source of delays, and we’ll do our best to work around that.”

In a file photo from August, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport employees assist travelers during a system outage.

Three months after their computer systems were crippled by a cyberattack, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport says they are nearly “all systems go” just in time for the Thanksgiving travel rush.

Although the computer systems have been restored, airport officials said they are still in the process of moving some content over to the new system. “During this time, you might notice areas of the site still under construction or information in the process of being updated,” said the Port of Seattle, which operates the airport.

The port’s central computer system was attacked on August 24, initially knocking ticketing and baggage handling systems offline and forcing some airlines to cancel or delay flights. The airport sent a small army of office employees with green vests into the terminal to assist passengers as flight status boards were blacked out for days.

The FAA lists Seattle-Tacoma as the 11th busiest airport in the nation as of 2023.

Last-minute travelers in the East today will get a little boost from Mother Nature. Dry, largely calm weather in the busy region will keep at least one factor of both air and ground holiday travel chaos at bay.

A storm will start to organize later this afternoon over the southern Plains and Mississippi Valley after a largely dry start to the day in the central US. This storm will spread rain from the center of the country to the Appalachians overnight.

Rain could mix with snow for a time overnight from Illinois into northern Pennsylvania and southern New York. This would create slick conditions for any early morning travelers on Thanksgiving.

Most the West is also looking great today after an active stretch of weather aside from Colorado, where snow will slowly wind down. Heavy snow will be confined to the highest elevations but some minimal slushy snow in Denver could potentially slow motorists down for a time.

Low clouds and wind may impact flights in several cities across the US, according to an air traffic report from the Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday morning.

Boston, Tampa, Dallas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Seattle may all be affected, the FAA says.

Meanwhile, snow could lead to delays in Minneapolis and Denver, the FAA says.

For weeks, David Burke couldn’t shake the haunting images of small mountain communities in western North Carolina unexpectedly pummeled by a historic storm.

Despite being 300 miles away, he couldn’t bear the thought of watching his home being swallowed by floodwaters, losing friends or family to a sudden disaster, or spending Thanksgiving alone, staring at an empty table that should have been surrounded by loved ones.

So the 59-year-old father of two quietly devised a plan. He would make the six-hour drive from Seabord in northeastern North Carolina to Avery County with his family, a few friends and enough supplies to cook 1,000 meals to feed people in need.

Then, his community got wind of the idea.

What was originally planned to be 1,000 meals turned into 5,000 and rather than carrying out his mission alone, Burke now has an army of more than 200 volunteers following him to Newland, to help feed victims of the storm who will not be able to have their own Thanksgiving celebration this year.

“The experience has already has changed me, there’s no question about it. It confirms for me any doubts I ever had in my own faith,” he added.

Read more about Burke’s mission to bring relief to those affected by the storm here.

A woman takes photos of her packed suitcase at home.

It’s enough to give anyone already on edge about how to handle possible flight delays and cancellations yet another reason to pop an antacid or two: the prospect of delayed, lost, stolen or damaged baggage.

Here are some things you can do:

Before you go to the airport:

At the airport:

Read the full list of baggage tips and strategies to tackle your holiday travel

Much of the US will be dry but very cold on Thanksgiving Day with the exception of the East, where a disruptive storm will take shape.

Stormy weather will stretch from the Southeast to the Northeast. Some sloppy snow will fall in elevated portions of the Interior Northeast and northern New England, but mostly rain will fall at lower elevations and near the coast.

Rain and some rumbles of thunder will also dampen the fun for parts of the mid-Atlantic, Southeast and Gulf Coast. A few stronger thunderstorms could develop in these regions, especially later in the morning or early in the afternoon.

Many areas from the Gulf Coast through New England will pick up less than an inch of rain, not heavy enough to produce flooding, but capable of poor visibility at times for motorists.

Dreary weather with low clouds could cause issues at times for Eastern Seaboard airports.

Planes at Denver International and Salt Lake City International airports are being sprayed with deicing fluid to remove snow and ice ahead of their departures, according to an update from the FAA.

Flights arriving at Denver International are delayed an average of 26 minutes, due to snow or ice. Flights leaving from both airports continue to depart as scheduled, the FAA says.

Parade participants guide a turkey float at the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York in 2008.

As far as holiday traditions go, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is about as essential to the cozy November holiday as turkey and stuffing.

While it’s had some interruptions and mishaps along the way, the show has still managed to go on almost every year for nearly a century.

Here are some things you might not know:

It was originally a Christmas parade: The original store was about 20 blocks south on Sixth Avenue near 14th Street. Macy’s has been at its current flagship location, at Broadway and 34th Street, since 1902. Continuing expansion made the location what Macy’s called the “world’s largest store,” an entire city block with more than 1 million square feet of retail space.

In celebration, employees organized a Christmas parade in 1924 featuring “floats, bands, animals from the zoo and 10,000 onlookers,” according to a Macy’s history page. It also started way up at 145th Street. The parade concluded with Santa Claus and the unveiling of the store’s Christmas windows. Three years later, the Christmas Parade was renamed the Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Macy’s didn’t invent the practice: Philadelphia has the oldest Thanksgiving Day parade: Its Gimbels Thanksgiving Day Parade, now the 6ABC — Dunkin’ Thanksgiving Day Parade, debuted in 1920s.

The parade was first broadcast on the radio: You had to use your visual imagination when the first broadcasts of the parade took place in 1932 — that’s because they were on the radio. The parade was first televised in 1946 in New York and then nationally on NBC the next year.

The balloons have been around almost the whole time: According to Mental Floss, the balloon attractions debuted in 1927, inspired by a balloon float. Even then, they were massive — one was a 60-foot dinosaur — and, in those days, they had more to deal with than just high winds and crazy weather: Until 1938, an elevated train ran down Sixth Avenue.

United Airlines planes are seen at Newark Liberty International Airport on September 20.

United Airlines said the shortage in the Federal Aviation Administration’s air traffic control staffing has led to “significant disruption” for its passengers at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, according to a new memo released Tuesday.

The major US airline said that more than 343,000 of its travelers this month dealt with delays, cancellations, long taxi times and longer flight times at Newark — which it attributes to FAA’s understaffing.

United said that on November 15 alone, nearly 2,000 of its customers were impacted by canceled flights. Nearly 25,000 United customers were disrupted by gate delays and taxi or air delays that day, according to United.

On Saturday alone, nearly 46,000 of its customers faced gate delays, taxiing or air delays, United said.

Mike Whitaker, FAA administrator, acknowledged that staffing issues affecting the Newark airspace could force the agency to slow air traffic over the holiday travel period.

In a response provided to CNN, the FAA said that hiring more air traffic controllers is “a top priority.”

“Specifically in the Newark airspace, the FAA is addressing a decades-long issue of staffing and has been transparent with airlines and travelers about our plan,” the agency said.

A man stops to fill up his car at a gas station in Washington DC, on November 26.

The number of people hitting the road this Thanksgiving holiday is on the rise.

Airports and the country’s major highways will be filled with Thanksgiving travelers headed away for the holiday. Almost 80 million people will travel over Thanksgiving, up 1.7 million compared to 2023, according to AAA, though the calculation includes two extra travel days from previous years.

If you’re driving: More than 71 million people will go on a road trip over Thanksgiving, at a time when gas prices have lowered — offering one source of relief for cash-strapped travelers. The national average last Thanksgiving Day was $3.26. AAA predicts the national average below $3 a gallon for the first time since 2021.

“Thanksgiving is the busiest holiday for travel, and this year we’re expecting to set new records across the board, from driving to flying and cruising,” said Stacey Barber, vice president of AAA Travel Services.

If you’re flying: Air traffic could see slowdowns, particularly in the Northeast, because of air traffic controller shortages, the Federal Aviation Administration said last week.

Traveling by air is going to be moderately more expensive this year.

Airfares are averaging near $284 for domestic trips, jumping 9% from the same time last year, according to travel site Hopper. For international trips, like trips to a popular Thanksgiving destination in Europe, prices are about 20% more expensive than last year.

A powerful storm is set to impact travel across the US this week that could disrupt Thanksgiving travel plans, AccuWeather meteorologists said in an online forecast.

Western US: Central California saw significant rainfall Tuesday, with several feet of snow in the mountains. As the storm moves east, snow will affect Utah and the Colorado Rockies, with Denver anticipating 1 to 3 inches on Wednesday, according to AccuWeather.

Central US: While travel started smoothly in the Central US yesterday, conditions may deteriorate by Wednesday as the storm reaches the Plains, bringing possible snow to Kansas. Cold air will sweep in for Thanksgiving, with precipitation primarily staying to the south and east.

Southeast: Travel will be smooth in the Southeast on Wednesday, but thunderstorms are forecasted for Wednesday night into Thursday, potentially bringing flooding, damaging winds and isolated tornadoes for last-minute travelers.

Northeast and Great Lakes: Thanksgiving week will bring significant weather challenges to the Northeast and Great Lakes, with a mix of rain and snow that could hinder travel before the holiday. Lake-effect snow may also impact post-holiday travel into the weekend.