By Colleen Jenkins, Reuters
A wintry blast of heavy rain, wind and snow across the eastern United States disrupted Thanksgiving trip plans on Wednesday for some of the millions of people hitting the roads and taking to the skies on the busiest holiday travel day of the year.
Thanksgiving travelers inside an airport.
Airlines reported storm-caused delays, with some flight cancellations in the Northeast.
Delays were building in Baltimore, Philadelphia and Newark, New Jersey, said Southwest Airlines spokesman Dan Landson. Delta Air Lines canceled 35 flights on its regional carriers due to inclement weather at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, spokesman Morgan Durrant said.
Travel conditions were expected to worsen later in the day, with a combination of precipitation and rapidly falling temperatures resulting in slick roads, said AccuWeather.com meteorologist Bill Deger.
“Travel around some of the big cities by road could be a little tricky if people wait until tonight,” Deger said.
Boston, New York and Philadelphia “still have a lot more rain to go as we head through the rest of the day,” he added.
Rain was moderate to heavy in the Southeast, mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions on Wednesday, with light to moderate snowfall from the Southern Appalachians to western New York, the National Weather Service said.
The National Weather Service said western Pennsylvania, western New York and Vermont could get more than 1 foot of snow before skies cleared on Thursday.
Flood watches were in effect for eastern portions of the Northeast United States.
The Thanksgiving holiday is one of the nation’s busiest travel times, with 43 million Americans expected to make trips this weekend, travel group AAA said.
Read the full story by Colleen Jenkins, Reuters.
