A deadly winter storm system heading east threatens widespread cancellations at some of the country's busiest airports on the eve of Thanksgiving, a meteorologist warned Tuesday.
High winds and low clouds were likely to trigger extensive delays at New York's three airports, as well as in Boston, Washington and Baltimore beginning Tuesday afternoon and lasting for up to 36 hours, according to The Weather Channel's lead meteorologist Kevin Roth.
Parts of Pennsylvania and upstate New York, including Pittsburgh and Buffalo, could experience up to 18 inches of snow by Wednesday, Roth added.
The storm, which caused hundreds of flight delays in Texas and killed at least 14 people, was covering parts of West Virginia, Georgia and North Carolina in ice early Tuesday.
The storm was expected to bring a troublesome mix of snow, ice, wind, and rain to the Northeast from Tuesday afternoon. The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is traditionally the busiest travel day of the year.
"For anyone wanting to travel in these areas the day before Thanksgiving it will be pretty bad," Roth said. "People need to take very, very extreme precautions -- tomorrow [Wednesday] is going to be a bad travel situation."
As the storm moved eastwards FlightAware.com unveiled its real-time, interactive "Misery Map," showing locations of delays and cancellations across the U.S.
The system moving in from the south originated in California last week and has brought harsh weather across New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Kentucky. It is on course to merge with another system coming down from the Great Lakes on Tuesday.
“That is a lethal combination for winter weather in the Northeast,” Tom Niziol, winter weather expert for The Weather Channel, told NBC News on Monday.
Some 43 million people are expected to travel in the U.S. before Thanksgiving on Thursday, according to AAA. These include 3.1 million fliers.
“If people traveling can get out before [the worst weather hits], or wait until afterward, that would be the best thing,” Roth said.
Strong, damaging winds – with gusts of 50 mph to 60 mph -- were forecast for New York City and Boston as well as surrounding areas from Tuesday night into Wednesday afternoon. The strongest winds were due late Tuesday.
The National Weather Service issued a High Wind Watch for those areas, warning that powerful winds out of the south have the potential to topple trees and knock down tree limbs and power lines that could lead to power outages.
Thanksgiving Day was likely to be clear, save for some lake-effect snow in Buffalo, N.Y., and Cleveland, Ohio, according to Roth.
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