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Thanksgiving weather forecast maps show snow storms, winter cold fronts could cause travel chaos
A messy spell of winter weather continued to dominate forecasts Tuesday across the United States, with a mix of rain and snow expected to materialize in different areas around the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. Storms could potentially impact travel plans, particularly for people in eastern parts of the country, while the Mountain West could feel the effects of an “Arctic blast” overnight Wednesday into Thursday.
Map of the Thanksgiving weather forecast for 2024
“A mix of rain and snow are possible across the eastern third of the country on Thanksgiving Day,” said CBS News meteorologist Nikki Nolan, who noted forecasting models were “reaching a consensus” by Tuesday and indicated the I-95 corridor, which runs along the East Coast from Miami to the Canadian border with Maine, would likely receive rain. Interior regions of the Northeast, like upstate New York, would likely see snow.
Nikki Nolan for CBS News
Between 1 and 4 inches of snowfall could accumulate in those interior regions, Nolan said, while as much as a total 3 inches of rain could fall on affected areas.
Temperatures are expected to drop across a majority of the U.S., with northern places like Minneapolis preparing for extreme cold. Chilly conditions will probably spare southeastern states, forecasts show.
Where will winter storms hit hardest for Thanksgiving?
Winter weather advisories were in place Tuesday for northern Michigan, where forecasters at the National Weather Service warned up to 6 inches of additional snowfall could accumulate in some places by the evening. Advisories were set to remain active through 7 p.m. in the local time zone.
“Expect the lake effect snowfall to pick up this afternoon when a stronger band moves onshore. Should the band remain onshore into tonight, the Winter Weather Advisory may need to be extended in time in the future,” states an alert issued early Tuesday morning by the weather service in Marquette, Michigan. Forecasters advised people to plan for “slippery road conditions and reduced visibility,” potentially during their morning and evening commutes.
Nikki Nolan for CBS News
Additional advisories were effective in parts of the Northeast on Tuesday afternoon. In Albany, New York, forecasts warned that “pockets of freezing rain” could create dangerous road conditions in the southern Adirondacks, Lake George and Saratoga regions, and southern Vermont before transitioning into normal rainfall Wednesday morning.
“Be aware of slippery roads and sidewalks during the morning commute or if traveling early for Thanksgiving,” states a message from the weather service in Albany. Freezing rain could potentially result in up to a tenth of an inch of ice, according to Nolan.
Farther west, a low-pressure weather system tied to the ongoing atmospheric river continued to shift inward from coastal areas, bringing with it rain and snow. The wintry weather prompted warnings in Nevada, as forecasters in Las Vegas predicted up to 14 inches of snow could fall in areas with higher elevation.
Meanwhile, the threat of impending snowfall triggered a series of avalanche warnings in Colorado. Nolan said as much as 3 feet of snow could stack up in certain parts of the Colorado Rockies, with forecasts showing winds of 30-40 miles per hour could tear through the region along with the storms.
Will winter storms impact Thanksgiving travel?
Estimates suggest an unprecedented number of people will crowd roads and airports this week, as figures reported by AAA showed 80 million were expected to travel at least 50 miles over the next seven days. If the calculation hold up, it would set a new Thanksgiving record. Complicating the anticipated congestion is the major storm affecting huge sections of the U.S., from the western Rocky Mountains to the East Coast.
Nikki Nolan for CBS News
“We’ve been talking about it basically on repeat since Friday: storms on the West Coast, storms in the Northeast, and now a storm in the Mountain West,” said CBS News senior transportation correspondent Kris Van Cleave, reporting from LaGuardia Airport in Queens, New York, on Tuesday. “So airports from San Francisco to Las Vegas, Salt Lake, Denver, and here in the Northeast, D.C. to Boston, could all see delays today as these various storm systems are moving around. A lot to watch.”
The Federal Aviation Administration said 50,000 flights were scheduled Tuesday, Van Cleave reported, noting the agency expects air travel to be even busier Wednesday and Sunday.
Where will it snow on Thanksgiving?
The storm system’s track was still somewhat uncertain Tuesday, but forecasters said below-average temperatures in the Northeast — especially in interior areas — could determine whether different locations in the region are hit with rain or snow.
In the lead-up to Thanksgiving Day, forecasters at the Weather Prediction Center said heavy snow across the southern Sierra Nevada, Intermountain West and Central Rockies earlier in the week will be followed by snow showers across the Great Lakes that could result in up to 8 inches of snowfall by Thursday in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
As temperatures tick downward over the Northern Plains ahead of the holiday, the weather prediction center said a series of disturbances over the Central U.S. would “facilitate an arctic outbreak across the region” overnight Wednesday into Thanksgiving.
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Trial of ex-FBI informant indicted for lying about Bidens delayed amid new tax evasion charges
A California man who prosecutors alleged lied to federal agents and pushed fake criminal allegations against President Biden and his son Hunter now faces new charges of tax evasion from special counsel David Weiss, according to court records.
Alexander Smirnov was an FBI informant for about a decade, providing information to federal investigators in what his defense attorneys claimed in court filings demonstrated an “undivided, years-long loyalty to the United States.”
But Weiss — the Trump-appointed Delaware U.S. attorney who was kept on during the Biden administration and later elevated to the role of special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland to continue the Hunter Biden probes — alleged in a February 2024 indictment that Smirnov illegally made false claims to FBI handlers about Hunter and Mr. Biden that dated back to 2020.
William T. Robles / AP
Smirnov was accused of lying to investigators when he told them the two Bidens had each accepted $5 million from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. The claims “were false, as the Defendant knew,” according to the charging documents filed against him.
Smirnov, who court records say was born in Ukraine, pleaded not guilty to the charges and in court filings, his defense team has accused prosecutors of charging their client “as a result of the rejection of Hunter Biden’s plea resolutions.” He remains in pretrial detention pending trial.
On Nov. 21, just weeks before he was set to go to trial on Dec. 3, federal prosecutors in Weiss’ office filed a little-noticed indictment in a separate case against Smirnov, alleging he had illegally concealed from the IRS millions of dollars in income between 2020 and 2022.
Court records alleged Smirnov spent unreported income on a Las Vegas apartment, a Bentley and payments on credit card debt. Prosecutors did not name the alleged source of the funds, but the dates and amounts of his payments to him from a single company identified in their filing as “Company 1” coincide with payments they alleged Smirnov received from the Economic Transformation Technologies Corporation, which was named in court records filed in Smirnov’s other case. Other income came from an unnamed individual, the new indictment said.
“In order to conceal the millions of dollars he received in income in 2020, 2021 and 2022, the Defendant created and filed false Forms 1040, U.S. Individual Income Tax Returns, for himself and in Domestic Partner’s name that included false and fictitious income and expenses,” the 27-page indictment filed last week said.
According to newly published court records, the judge overseeing Weiss’ first case against Smirnov — District Court Judge Otis Wright — held a status conference on Tuesday and delayed his upcoming trial on the false statements charges until January.
Responding to the new tax charges, David Chesnoff, Smirnov’s attorney, told CBS News, “Mr. Smirnov intends to vigorously defend this case as he is vigorously defending the first case.”
A spokesperson for Weiss declined to comment when contacted by CBS News.
Prosecutors alleged earlier this year that Smirnov’s false claims against the Bidens were memorialized in an FBI document known as an FD 1023. Congressional Republicans previously pointed to that document’s allegations of bribery as evidence of misdeeds and fought with the FBI to publicly release the document, which investigators now say contained fake allegations.
Smirnov’s attorneys have argued in court records that the case “smacks of political bias.” But prosecutors pushed back, writing this month that Smirnov, “has never provided any discovery to the government or evidence to this Court supporting his baseless claims—indeed, there is no such evidence because the claims are meritless.”
In court records filed earlier this year, the special counsel said Smirnov told the FBI about contacts with foreign intelligence officials, “including Russian intelligence agencies, and has had such contacts recently.” Defense attorneys in court filings of their own called allegations of Russian ties baseless.
Apart from the specific charges at issue, law enforcement experts told CBS News earlier this year that the mounting questions about Smirnov’s truthfulness should trigger an audit of every case in which he was involved. A CBS News investigation published earlier this year revealed that serious doubts about Smirnov’s credibility were raised almost a decade ago.
The FBI declined to comment on the results of the CBS News investigation earlier this year.
Weiss secured a conviction against Hunter Biden in Delaware on illegal gun charges and a guilty plea from the president’s son in a second case in California in which Hunter Biden admitted to tax fraud. He is set to be sentenced in both cases later this month.
The trial conviction and guilty plea were the results of a protracted legal battle between Weiss’s office and Hunter Biden’s legal team after an initial plea and diversion agreement fell apart and ultimately were rejected by a federal judge in 2023.
The special counsel has faced criticism from members of Congress and whistleblowers over his handling of the Hunter Biden probe.
and
contributed to this report.
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