Storms Threatening Thanksgiving Travel

Weather may be one thing we won't be feeling so thankful for. Because this year, Thanksgiving might end up feeling more like Christmas. According to new forecast reports, most of the country is seemingly doomed when it comes to the weather this week. Storms from the West Coast have already led to 10 traffic fatalities — not to mention 400 canceled flights in the Dallas-Fort Worth area — and are currently moving East, just in time for Thursday's holiday.

"It's sort of like throwing the whole kitchen sink out there," Mark Ressler, lead meteorologist at The Weather Channel, told USA Today. "With air travel leading up to those last days before Thanksgiving and people out on the roads, just a messy midweek for them."

Temperatures will most likely be 15 to 20 degrees below normal on the East Coast this week because of an Arctic air mass. The wind is supposed to be so blustering and fierce that it could halt travel — regardless of whether it ends up snowing and raining.

There have unfortunately already been a number of fatalities caused by this dangerous weather nationwide. The Oklahoma’s Department of Public Safety says that four people have died on the road since Friday. A Texas State Trooper said three people also died that day in a pileup on an icy Interstate, and two people died while driving in New Mexico on Friday, including a 4-year-old girl.

Normally, Thanksgiving is the most traveled day of the year. The U.S. Department of Transportation reports that the number of long-distance trips (which includes traveling to a destination that’s at least 50 miles away) increases by 54 percent over the 6-day Thanksgiving travel period. (That compares to a 23 percent increase over traditional Christmas traveling days.) With recent weather reports warning Americans to be prepared for the worst, this could have a big impact on all of the traveling that’s supposed to be happening.