DENVER — The week of Thanksgiving is widely regarded as the busiest travel stretch of the year. While a wide swath of the country will enjoy relatively calm weather in the lead-up to Thanksgiving, a few areas on the East Coast could see some weather-related travel disruptions.
A sharp cold front moving from west to east will bring a round of heavy rain and gusty winds with it, potentially leading to some travel headaches Tuesday and early Wednesday along the Eastern Seaboard.
Cities like Boston, New York and Washington could see a round of heavy rain and gusty winds Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. Behind the front, strong winds could affect flights for the eastern third or so of the country on Tuesday and Wednesday. Gusts could reach 40 or even 50 mph in the upper Midwest and the Northeast, leading to the potential for some flight delays.
Behind the cold front, a large area of high pressure should keep the weather relatively calm across the rest of the country, with the exception of a few rain and snow showers across the Pacific Northwest.
High pressure budges east for Thanksgiving, leading to generally calmer conditions across the eastern two-thirds of the country on Thanksgiving Day. That said, lake effect snow could pile up in parts of upstate New York on Thanksgiving Day, and some snow and much colder temperatures will push into the Rocky Mountains on Thanksgiving, as well.
Thanksgiving weather in Colorado
While the weather looks pretty quiet in Colorado in the lead-up to Thanksgiving, it could turn active shortly thereafter.
A storm system moving out of the Pacific Northwest looks to move into Colorado late next week, potentially bringing snow to parts of Colorado by Thanksgiving night. The cold air will start to push into Denver either on Wednesday or Thursday, and snow could fall as soon as the night of Thanksgiving across northeast Colorado.
There are still lots of questions surrounding this storm, as it's several days out, but a few inches of accumulation looks possible for the Denver area and other lower elevations for Thursday night into Friday.
Either way, it'll turn very cold, with high temperatures by Black Friday and the following weekend in the 20s or low 30s, and overnight lows in the single digits. This'll likely be the coldest air mass Colorado has seen so far this winter season.
Because we're still several days away from this, some details are lacking. But you might want to prepare for a cold and potentially snowy Black Friday and the weekend that follows it.
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