Storms to ruin travel in U.S. over Thanksgiving weekend: reports

NEW YORK — Millions of Americans flying or getting behind the wheel for the Thanksgiving holiday are bracing for flight delays and dangerous roads as bad weather sweeps the United States in what’s forecast to be a record-breaking travel period, reported Bloomberg News on Thursday.

New England was set to get heavy snowfall into Friday morning, according to the National Weather Service. Winter storm warnings were in effect for some areas around the Great Lakes. Rain could “cause problems ranging from ponding and the risk of hydroplaning on the highways to poor visibility due to blowing spray from other vehicles and areas of dense fog,” according to AccuWeather.

Thursday morning travel was relatively smooth at most major airports, though Minneapolis had earlier reported delays of about 25 minutes on average, said aviation tracking site FlightAware.

Aircraft there were being de-iced to remove snow, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Around midday, Denver recorded the highest number of delays, followed by San Francisco and Los Angeles. Boston and New York also reported some delays. Parts of the West coped with the effects of bad weather on Wednesday. Denver recorded more than 700 cancellations, a more than twofold jump from the prior day, as snow hit the area.

A record-setting 80 million people were expected to travel mostly by car and plane from Nov. 26 to Dec. 2, according to the American Automobile Association. More than 2.7 million people went through airport checkpoints on Wednesday alone, a 40 percent increase from the prior year, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

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