Light rain and drizzle that dampened parts of metro Atlanta overnight pushed east of the city before daybreak, leaving dry roads for what was expected to be one of the busiest travel days of the year.
While dry weather is forecast for metro Atlanta throughout the holiday weekend, Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Brad Nitz said there’s a “real possibility” of Thanksgiving Day snow flurries in the north Georgia mountains.
“It will be more of a curiosity than anything else,” Nitz said. “It shouldn’t cause any problems.”
Any mountain flurries should end by around noon, according to Nitz.
He said Thursday will be cold, with morning lows in the mid-30s and afternoon highs only in the upper 40s across the metro area.
Early morning shoppers Friday will need to bundle up, as lows will be in the upper 20s, followed by highs Friday afternoon in the low 50s.
A warm-up is forecast for the weekend, with highs in the low 60s Saturday and mid-60s Sunday and lows in the mid-30s Saturday and mid-40s Sunday. Check the full weather report and track changes.
Holiday travelers headed to the northeastern U.S. could find challenges on the road and in the air as a nor’easter is expected to bring rain and snow to the Washington-to-Boston corridor.
Major Northeast cities were likely to see moderate to heavy rain most of the day on Wednesday, although New York City and other places also were gearing up for several inches of snow, National Weather Service meteorologist Bruce Sullivan said.
Nitz said snowfall totals of 2 to 5 inches are likely in New York City, with 6 to 12 inches possible in an area northeast of the city.
Major airlines canceled dozens of flights in and out of New York-area airports and dropped ticket-change fees for people flying to and from the Northeast.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark Liberty airports, said it was lining up extra staff and snow removal equipment in the event of a heavy snowfall.
In Atlanta, Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport was busy late Wednesday morning, and while the local weather was causing no flight delays, the Federal Aviation Administration reported delays averaging over three hours on flights to Newark and LaGuardia airports and delays of nearly 2 hours on Philadelphia-bound flights.
Security wait times at 10 a.m. ranged from 10 to 20 minutes at the main and north checkpoints to 20 to 30 minutes at the south checkpoint. Parking was available in all of the airport's lots, according to the Hartsfield website.
— The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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