With millions of people preparing to travel for the Thanksgiving holiday, two strong storm systems, including the first major winter storm of the season, are forecast to bring high winds, heavy rain and snowfall to a large swath of the United States this week. “rapidly strengthening and extremely powerful low pressure system” in the Pacific Northwest is expected to bring damaging winds up to 70 mph to parts of northern California, Oregon and Washington,
An associated “atmospheric river event” was expected to bring heavy rain and snow to the same region through Wednesday.
“When combined with heavy snowfall at the higher elevations, blizzard conditions are in the forecast throughout the Washington Cascades,” the weather service said.
Snow from the Plains to the Northeast
A second system — which brought severe thunderstorms to the central and southern Plains on Monday and triggered a tornado in Oklahoma — will collide with arctic air as it moves north, causing widespread snow to develop across the Dakotas, Minnesota and Wisconsin on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Up to a foot of snow is possible in parts of North Dakota, the weather service said, adding that the snowfall “may also be accompanied by gusty winds, leading to lower visibility on roadways.”
Separately, an upper-level low pressure system was forecast to develop above the Great Lakes later this week, resulting in cooler temperatures, cold rain from the Ohio Valley to the East Coast and accumulating snow for the central Appalachians and parts of the Northeast, the weather service said.
Up to a foot snow is possible on Thursday and Friday, especially in the higher elevations of West Virginia and Maryland.
What about Thanksgiving?
Weather service forecasters have yet to issue forecasts beyond seven days, but the U.S. Climate Prediction Center’s 6-to-10-day outlook suggests above-average chances for rain in the Pacific Northwest, upper Midwest and Great Lakes during the early part of next week.
Nearly 80 million people are expected to travel more than 50 miles for Thanksgiving next week, according to AAA, with Tuesday and Wednesday expected to be the busiest times to be on the roads.