A high-impact winter storm packing heavy snow and rain has moved into the Northeast, leading to last-minute travel troubles as millions of people across the U.S. gather with family and friends on Thanksgiving to celebrate the holiday.
Impacts from the storm are widespread and stretch from New England and the Northeast through the mid-Atlantic and into the Southeast, where there is the potential for severe weather and possible tornadoes during the day on Thanksgiving.
Where is the heaviest snow going to fall on Thanksgiving?
Heavy snow has broken out across the interior Northeast, and the winter weather is expected to continue falling and piling up during the day and into Thursday night. This will slow travel on roads and highways to and from Thanksgiving Day gatherings.
A video shared from New York shows heavy snow from the system falling along Interstate 90 near the Amsterdam area.
The FOX Forecast Center said that the highest snowfall totals are expected in the higher terrain across interior portions of the Northeast.
This includes the Catskills, the Poconos, the Adirondacks, and the Green and White Mountains.
As much as a foot of snow could fall on the highest peaks, while the valley areas will struggle to see snow accumulate more than an inch or two due to the warmer temperatures at the surface.
The snow is going to have a big impact on holiday travel, with major highways like Interstate 90, Interstate 87, Interstate 91, and Interstate 93 all experiencing hazardous conditions during the day.
Several inches of snow has already fallen across interior portions of New York and Pennsylvania, and as the winter storm continues they will increase.
As of late Thursday morning, there had been about 4 inches of snow in Cortez, Pennsylvania, and about 3 inches had been reported in Laporte.
Snow is also piling up in New York state, and some communities have already received more than a half-foot.
Because of the Thanksgiving winter storm in the Northeast, winter weather alerts have been issued across the region.
Winter Storm Warnings and Winter Weather Advisories are in effect for portions of New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, and a majority of those will remain in effect until at least Black Friday.
To the south of the heavy snow, rain has broken out across areas of the Northeast and New England that are closer to the coast, which includes the I-95 corridor in cities like Boston, New Haven, Connecticut, New York City and into Philadelphia.
The rain has also started to move in farther south into the mid-Atlantic in cities like Baltimore and Washington, and air travel is expected to be impacted during the day at some of the nation’s busiest airports.
The Southeast and parts of the mid-Atlantic are also seeing impacts from the winter storm, but these impacts come in the form of a severe weather threat.
The FOX Forecast Center said a line of thunderstorms associated with the winter storm will develop during the day on Thursday, and some of those could turn severe.
NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center (SPC) has highlighted areas from New Orleans and the Gulf Coast and into the Southeast where the threat of storms is highest.
As a result, the SPC placed more than 18 million people in a Level 1 out of 5 risk of severe weather on its 5-point severe thunderstorm risk scale.
The biggest threats will be thunderstorms capable of producing damaging wind gusts, but there is also the chance that a tornado or two could spin up.
