More rain and snow in the US could affect Thanksgiving travel, forecasters warn | American weather

On November 25, 2024By Littum

Forecasters across the United States issued warnings that another round of wintry weather could complicate travel in the run up to the Thanksgiving holiday as California and Washington state continue to recover from storm damage and power outages.

In California, where one person was found dead in a vehicle submerged in floodwaters on Saturday, authorities braced for more rainfall as they battled flooding and small landslides from an earlier storm.

The National Weather Service office in Sacramento, California, issued a winter storm warning for the state’s Sierra Nevada from Saturday to Tuesday, with heavy snow expected at higher elevations and wind gusts potentially reaching 88 km/h. Total snowfall of about 4 feet (1.2 meters) was forecast, with the heaviest accumulations expected Monday and Tuesday.

The Midwest and Great Lakes regions will see rain and snow on Monday, and the East Coast will be most affected on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, forecasters said.

Truck drives through flooding on a road in Guerneville, California. Photo: John G Mabanglo/EPA

A low pressure system is expected to bring rain to the southeast early Thursday before moving northeast. Areas from Boston to New York could see rain and windy 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 National Weather Service in Massachusetts, said Sunday. “Basically, this will bring rain to the I-95 corridor, so travelers should prepare for wet weather. Unless the system develops much colder, it looks like rain.”

Frank said he doesn’t see any major storm systems arriving for the weekend anywhere in the country, so travelers heading home on Sunday can expect good driving conditions. However, temperatures will be colder in the east, while they will warm up in the west.

About 36,000 people in the Seattle area were still without power after this season’s strongest atmospheric river, a long plume of moisture that forms over an ocean and flows over land.

Quick guide

What is an atmospheric river? And other weather terms explained

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What is an atmospheric river? And other weather terms explained

Here is a brief overview of the different types of storms that have hit the North American West Coast this winter.

Atmospheric river

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration referring to these as “rivers in the sky” with good reason. Characterized by long streams of moisture in the atmosphere, the average atmospheric river carries an amount of water vapor that rivals the flow at the mouth of the mighty Mississippi River—and strong ones can hold up to 15 times that amount. This moisture is released as rain or snow when ARs make landfall and is typically accompanied by strong gusts of wind that add to their destructive tendencies.

Pineapple express

These particularly strong atmospheric rivers are named after their origin. Pineapple Express storms draw moisture from the Pacific Ocean around Hawaii and have been known to unleash torrents of rainfall when they reach the West Coast of the United States and Canada—and has dumped about 5 inches of rain on California in a single day, according to the National Ocean Service.

Bomb cyclone

These low-pressure storm systems help create atmospheric rivers, pushing them from the Pacific to the coast. Unlike hurricanes or other storms, where the center is the strongest, bomb cyclones can generate the worst weather at their edges.

El Nino

This is a climate pattern characterized by unusually warm surface sea temperatures in the tropical Pacific. Along with its counterpart La Niña – which again refers to a period of colder than average sea surface temperatures – these patterns can affect weather around the world. Although the weather doesn’t always match up, El Niño is associated with warmer temperatures and generally delivers drier conditions in the northern United States and Canada, and wetter—causing increased risk of flooding—throughout the south.

– Gabrielle Canon, US climate and extreme weather correspondent

Another storm brought rain to New York and New Jersey, where rare wildfires have raged in recent weeks, and heavy snow to northeastern Pennsylvania. The rainfall was expected to help ease drought conditions after an unusually dry fall.

“It’s not going to be a drought-buster, but it will certainly help when all this melts,” said Bryan Greenblatt, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Binghamton, New York.

Heavy snow fell in northeastern Pennsylvania, including the Pocono Mountains. Higher elevations reported up to 17in (43 cm), with smaller accumulations in valley cities including Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. About 35,000 customers in 10 counties are still without power, down from 80,000 a day ago.

In the Catskills region of New York, nearly 10,000 people remained without power Sunday morning, two days after a storm dumped heavy snow on parts of the region.

Rainfall in West Virginia helped put a dent in the state’s worst drought in at least two decades and bolstered ski resorts preparing to open their slopes in the coming weeks.