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Just as sure as the turkey will taste dry, airports and highways are expected to be jam-packed this week, with Thanksgiving 2024 expected to be one of the “busiest travel periods on record,” the Transportation Security Administration said.
According to TSA, more than 18.3 million people expected to move through airports across the country beginning Tuesday. That’s 6% more than during the corresponding days last year, TSA said.
In Chicago alone, 1.8 million people are expected to pass through Midway and O’Hare International Airports between Tuesday, Nov. 26 and Monday, Dec. 2, the Chicago Department of Aviation said, with O’Hare to see a “significant surge in passenger traffic.”
That surge amounts to an expected increase of 11.4% compared to Thanksgiving 2023, the CDA said.
Sunday Dec. 1 was anticipated to be Chicago’s busiest travel day, the CDA said, with more than 254,000 passengers expected at O’Hare, and more than 58,000 at Midway. Tuesday and Wednesday were expected to be the next-busiest air travel days for Thanksgiving week.
“This will be the busiest Thanksgiving ever in terms of air travel,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske said. “Fortunately, our staffing is also at the highest levels that they have ever been. We are ready.”
Pekoske said TSA will have enough screeners to keep general security lines under 30 minutes and lines for people who pay extra for PreCheck under 10 minutes.
On the roads, Auto club and insurance company AAA predicts that nearly 80 million Americans will venture at least 50 miles from home between Tuesday and next Monday. Most of them will travel by car.
Drivers should know that Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons will be the worst times to travel by car, but it should be smooth sailing on freeways come Thanksgiving Day, according to transportation analytics company INRIX.
The same can’t be said for Sunday in Chicago, though. According to INRIX, the area’s “peak congestion period” was expected to be Sunday, Dec. 1 around 3:45 p.m., particularly on I-65 between Indianapolis and Chicago, INRIX said.
In other metropolitan areas, including Boston, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle and Washington, “traffic is expected to be more than double what it typically is on a normal day,” INRIX transportation analyst Bob Pishue said.
Forecasts warn of possible winter storms across US during Thanksgiving week
In the Chicago area, the Thanksgiving forecast looked dry but cold, with a high temperature of 37 degrees, the NBC 5 Storm Team said. In other parts though, rounds of snowy weather could complicate travel leading up to the holiday, according to forecasts across the U.S., while California and Washington state continue to recover from storm damage and power outages.
The National Weather Service office in Sacramento, California, issued a winter storm warning for the Sierra Nevada through Tuesday, with heavy snow expected at higher elevations and wind gusts potentially reaching 55 mph (88 kph). Total snowfall of roughly 4 feet (1.2 meters) was forecast, with the heaviest accumulations expected Monday and Tuesday.
Parts of the Midwest and Great Lakes regions will see rain and snow Monday and the East Coast will be the most impacted on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, forecasters said.
A low pressure system is forecast to bring rain to the Southeast early Thursday before heading to the Northeast. Areas from Boston to New York could see rain and breezy conditions, with snowfall possible in parts of northern New Hampshire, northern Maine and the Adirondacks. If the system tracks further inland, there could be less snow and more rain in the mountains, forecasters said.
“The system doesn’t look like a powerhouse right now,” Hayden Frank, a meteorologist with the weather service in Massachusetts, said Sunday. “Basically, this is going to bring rain to the I-95 corridor so travelers should prepare for wet weather. Unless the system trends a lot colder, it looks like rain.”
Frank said he isn’t seeing any major storm systems arriving for the weekend anywhere in the country so travelers heading home Sunday can expect good driving conditions. Temperatures, however, will get colder in the East while warming up out West.