Kevin Schneider

A021DDE71AA34C50BB5468289EA6B1D7jpeg-1699372868991.jpeg

It is that time of year again—when millions of Americans hit the road or the skies to connect with friends and family. AAA is expecting a record number of travelers this year, surpassing the record-breaking 2024. Most travelers will be hitting the road vs flying.<div data-youtube-video=""><iframe width="640" height="480" allowfullscreen="false" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/o78PUXSJCJU" start="0"></iframe></div><img src="https://media.weathernationtv.com/app/uploads/2025/11/Screenshot 2025-11-17 104347-1763401813998.png">With millions hitting the roads, traffic will be hard to avoid, no matter where you are heading. However, there will be some better times to do your traveling. AAA suggests starting the journey early, but with a reasonable night of sleep the night prior.<img src="https://media.weathernationtv.com/app/uploads/2025/11/Screenshot 2025-11-17 105052-1763401888415.png">With so many traveling over the holidays, there are some favored destinations. Besides New York City, the other nine top destinations favor warm weather in late November.<img src="https://media.weathernationtv.com/app/uploads/2025/11/Screenshot 2025-11-17 110215-1763402544204.png">How does this compare to previous years? With more than 6 million people expected to fly, that's a 2% increase compared to last year, but it's a more than 10% jump compared to pre-pandemic levels!<img src="https://media.weathernationtv.com/app/uploads/2025/11/Screenshot 2025-11-17 105653-1763402231681.png">

Tracey Anthony

A Record Breaking Thanksgiving Travel Week Expected

Screenshot20251117105830png-1763402316631.png

Taban Sharifi grew up in Southern California between Los Angeles and San Diego. She is a Certified Broadcast Meteorologist (CBM) with the American Meteorological Society (AMS). She has a B.S. in Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Environmental Sciences with a minor in Environmental Systems and Society from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Go Bruins! While in school, Taban was a meteorology intern with NBC LA. There she helped forecast daily weather for the greater Los Angeles region and created a playbook to deploy weather sensors for NBC owned-and-operated stations across the country. Her first on-air job took her to San Angelo, Texas, where she was a morning meteorologist and co-anchor. Working in West Texas gave her knowledge and experience covering severe storms. From there, she moved to Palm Springs, California. People think forecasting in California is sunshine all the time, but with temperatures in the 120’s, wildfires, damaging winds, floodings, and earthquakes, the forecasting kept her very busy! She also worked there as a general assignment reporter and told community stories. Taban is excited for the challenge and opportunity to forecast nationally with WeatherNation. She also looks forward to exploring all that Colorado has to offer!

Taban Sharifi

TabanSharifijpeg-1679519287847.jpeg

The Upper Midwest has been fairly quiet recently. Naturally, when everyone is trying to travel back home, that trend breaks. A strong trough will kick out a windy area of low-pressure. That could bring some wintry weather back to the Dakotas and into the Great Lakes.<h1>Wind</h1>A strong system with a lot of wind energy will drive up the wind speeds Monday night into Tuesday. By Tuesday morning, areas around the Black Hills could be talking about wind gusts in the 50-60 mph range! Would it be enough to knock out power? Potentially. With travel starting to ramp up throughout the week, the bigger concern might have to be higher-profile vehicles on plenty of east-west facing interstates.<video src="https://media.weathernationtv.com/app/uploads/2025/11/2025-11-24 05-09-58-1763986244622.mp4" controls="true" width="100%"></video><h1>Snow</h1>Not only with the wind be howling, but there could be some snowflakes mixing in too! Winter Alerts have been issued for the potential of 3-7" of snowfall through Wednesday.<img src="https://media.weathernationtv.com/app/uploads/2025/11/Web2-1763986293774.png">With fast-moving systems, it can be a little tricky nailing down exact numbers, but half a foot to a foot could be possible. The highest totals take aim to the arrowhead of Minnesota through the UP of Michigan.<img src="https://media.weathernationtv.com/app/uploads/2025/11/Web2-1763986325327.png"><h1>Timing</h1>The snowfall will begin Tuesday morning and continue to push east through Wednesday. Eventually, this moisture will work into the Northeast.<video src="https://media.weathernationtv.com/app/uploads/2025/11/2025-11-24 05-13-34-1763986455246.mp4" controls="true" width="100%"></video><h1>Temperatures</h1>Expect a significant cool down. Low temperatures take a dive into the teens by Thanksgiving morning.<img src="https://media.weathernationtv.com/app/uploads/2025/11/Web3-1763986604357.png">For more details, tune in to your Central Regional Forecast :30 past the hour.

Adrian Hernandez

Windy System Blows Through Upper Midwest This Week

20251123101825ezgifcomvideotogifconvertergif-1763918581394.gif

Another storm system looks to target the southern tier of the country to end the weekend and start the holiday week ahead. This follows a strong low that brought record rain and significant flooding to Texas and Oklahoma to end the previous week.<h2>Monday Morning</h2>As the next low-pressure system starts to exit the Rockies and Northern Mexico, wind shear and updraft energy should be sufficient to allow a few strong/severe to happen overnight and into Monday morning. Large hail is the biggest concern at this point. Isolated tornadoes and damaging winds will also be threats through the overnight hours.<h2><img src="https://media.weathernationtv.com/app/uploads/2025/11/Screenshot 2025-11-23 200124-1763953323493.png">Monday</h2>The severe weather threat continues to push east along the cold front on Monday. Areas from northern Mississippi to central Texas will see the chance for severe weather. There has been an upgrade to Monday's severe risk. We are not looking at a Slight risk of severe storms from southern Arkansas to Austin, Texas. This means scattered severe storms will be likely in the forecast for the yellow-highlighted area.<img src="https://media.weathernationtv.com/app/uploads/2025/11/Web1-1763984132306.png">The forecast also calls for the formation of supercells, which in turn could lead to an isolated tornado risk. The SPC has highlighted the slightly higher risk in the brown coloring. If your city falls under this outlook, make sure you have some way to get weather alerts in case a tornado touches down.<img src="https://media.weathernationtv.com/app/uploads/2025/11/Web1-1763984342608.png"><h2>Tuesday</h2>The threat on Tuesday, at this time, remains isolated. It stretches from Baton Rouge, LA to Atlanta, GA.<img src="https://media.weathernationtv.com/app/uploads/2025/11/Web1-1763984707029.png"><h2>Storm Timing</h2><video src="https://media.weathernationtv.com/app/uploads/2025/11/2025-11-24 04-36-21-1763984212864.mp4" controls="true" width="100%"></video><h2>Rainfall</h2>A Flood Watch is in effect through Monday for portions of Texas.<img src="https://media.weathernationtv.com/app/uploads/2025/11/Screenshot 2025-11-23 151955-1763936403934.png">Watch for pockets of heavy rain that could lead to flooding. The Weather Prediction Center (WPC) has a Marginal to Slight risk for flooding through Tuesday.<img src="https://media.weathernationtv.com/app/uploads/2025/11/Web1-1763985104994.png">

Severe Weather Slides Through the South

Web1png-1763985141867.png

As the most recent windy system moves northeast, we wait on our next. Unfortunately, it looks like it might move through around a time that could complicate holiday plans.<img src="https://media.weathernationtv.com/app/uploads/2025/11/Screenshot 2025-11-23 112422-1763922444302.png">As this system <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.weathernationtv.com/news/windy-system-blows-through-upper-midwest-this-week">spins it's way into the Great Lakes</a>, widespread rain will build by Tuesday into Wednesday. If you're holding a balloon in the parade, the winds are what concern you. It doesn't look like it will be windy enough to affect much of the parade, but balloons might have to be lowered to help offset winds funneling between buildings.<video src="https://media.weathernationtv.com/app/uploads/2025/11/2025-11-24 04-32-44-1763984002951.mp4" controls="true" width="100%"></video>All of this to say - Thanksgiving parades are probably alright in the northeast. Unless they're in the western New York area. Those winds will be breezy at times, but the direction is most important! A westerly wind will carry warmer air temperatures from the lake waters into much cooler air temperatures behind all of this. The result? Thanksgiving Lake Effect Snow! Impressive bands have been noted on some longer-range models around Erie and Buffalo.<img src="https://media.weathernationtv.com/app/uploads/2025/11/Screenshot 2025-11-23 113329-1763922919015.png">

More Moisture For The Northeast This Week

Screenshot20251123111419png-1763922153253.png

Rob grew up in South Florida, where daily afternoon storms and hurricanes piqued his interest in meteorology early on. That interest was fostered by his teachers and his father, who one time brought him onto the roof of their home to watch a funnel cloud move through the Everglades several miles away. Years of filmmaking and tv production in high school gradually pushed him toward broadcast meteorology at Florida State University, where he joined and eventually led the student run daily weather show. After graduating with a Bachelors of Science in Meteorology, he began his career at KESQ in Palm Springs, California before heading to KFSN in Fresno and WLOS in Asheville, North Carolina. He has covered a diverse array of extreme weather events, including haboobs and flash flooding in the desert, extreme snow in the Sierra, hurricanes, and Appalachian ice storms. He also enjoys telling stories and reporting about weather issues.

Connect with Rob on <a href="https://twitter.com/WxRobBradley">Twitter</a>

Rob Bradley

RobBradleyjpeg-1679518597323.jpeg

Hurricane Melissa was a devastating category 5 storm that made landfall in Jamaica as one of the strongest systems on record in the Atlantic Basin.A dropsonde recorded a wind gust of 252 mph shortly before landfall, which was verified this week by NSF NCAR (U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research) to be accurate, making it the strongest gust ever recorded in a tropical cyclone.WeatherNation Meteorologist Rob Bradley discusses the data and Melissa's intense winds with hurricane researcher Andy Hazelton, who was working the data position on the reconnaissance flight that recorded the record gust.<div data-youtube-video=""><iframe width="640" height="480" allowfullscreen="false" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/n8DyYwpvi0w" start="0"></iframe></div>What are meso-vortices? These are smaller scale circulations in the atmosphere that are essentially miniature low pressure systems. These can be observed within clusters of thunderstorms, but they also appear within the eye and eye wall of intense hurricanes. Melissa produced some of the most visually stunning meso-vortices in the satellite era (below).<div class="twitter-tweet" style="display: flex; justify-content: center" data-twitt-post-id="1983738129581301844" src="https://x.com/WeatherNation/status/1983738129581301844"></div>

Hurricane Melissa Produces Strongest Gust Recorded in a Hurricane

Screenshot20251121110735png-1763749249454.png

Brittany Lockley

BrittanyLockleyjpeg-1679519515040.jpeg

A cut-off low will be moving out of southern California, bringing a surge of deep moisture to the Four Corners this weekend through next week. This low will bring rounds of showers and thunderstorms.&nbsp;Communities across northwest New Mexico, southeast Utah, southwest Colorado, and northeast Arizona could an abundant amount of rain, with some areas picking up over an inch of rain by the end of the weekend.&nbsp;<video src="https://media.weathernationtv.com/app/uploads/2025/11/2025-11-22 08-09-43-1763824217158.mp4" controls="true" width="100%"></video>In the mountains, snow has been piling up with 2-9" of snow reported across multiple states on Friday. Higher elevations are cold enough for accumulating mountain snow once again, which may create tricky travel conditions over passes and high-country roadways throughout a busy week for travel.&nbsp;<img src="https://media.weathernationtv.com/app/uploads/2025/11/Screenshot 2025-11-22 081034-1763824255136.png"><h2>Forecast</h2>Rain and snow chances will persist throughout the weekend, as the system moves to the Northeast. Heavy snow will return to the mountains, with difficult travel, especially on I-70 in Colorado. The rain and snow will mostly clear out by the beginning of next week.<video src="https://media.weathernationtv.com/app/uploads/2025/11/New Baron Video 3-1763867781581.mp4" controls="true" width="100%"></video>Isolated rain totals through Sunday could top an inch or two in some areas of Arizona. Some ponding on the roadways and street flooding will be possible. Expect heavy snow in the mountains, upwards of 6"+ in many locations. Ski resorts in Colorado could see more than a foot.<img src="https://media.weathernationtv.com/app/uploads/2025/11/1-1763867831465.png">Denver is preparing for a noticeably colder and more unsettled stretch of weather. a flurry might fall down in the Denver metro Saturday into Sunday as a stronger push of colder air drops into the Front Range.<video src="https://media.weathernationtv.com/app/uploads/2025/11/2025-11-22 08-20-04-1763824846586.mp4" controls="true" width="100%"></video>While totals will depend on how quickly temperatures fall and how long the moisture stays in place, it just might be too warm in the metro to see snow.<img src="https://media.weathernationtv.com/app/uploads/2025/11/1-1763867877561.png">&nbsp;

Jesse Kelley

Four Corners Expecting More Flooding Rain, Mountain Snow

Screenshot20251121164948png-1763768989963.png

A strong storm system that brought severe storms and flooding rain to Texas and Oklahoma is on the move. The trough is moving east with more impactful weather before it heads into the Atlantic Saturday afternoon.Severe storms are possible along the cold front tonight through Saturday morning from Kentucky into Mississippi. Wind damage is expected to be the primary hazard, so be sure to secure any loose objects outdoors.<img src="https://media.weathernationtv.com/app/uploads/2025/11/1-1763781379997.png">Scattered heavy downpours are expected to persist north of the low across the Midwest and Ohio Valley tonight. Severe storms could form into the overnight hours. Our high-resolution forecast model shows supercell thunderstorms developing late in the evening in West Tennessee, before tracking east overnight into the Deep South.<video src="https://media.weathernationtv.com/app/uploads/2025/11/New Baron Video 3-1763781681080.mp4" controls="true" width="100%"></video>Rainfall totals don't look too impressive thanks to the progressive movement of this system. 1-2 inches is expected for most areas that see thunderstorms.<img src="https://media.weathernationtv.com/app/uploads/2025/11/1-1763781727696.png">

Trough Shifts East, Severe Storms & Flooding Possible

1png-1763781283888.png

Before the snowstorm slammed into the southern Appalachians, we told you it could be one for the record books for cities in South and North Carolina, as well as Virginia. Now that the storm has finished, let's take a look at how it stacked up.

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-100934" src="https://media.weathernationtv.com/app/uploads/2018/12/Capture_2.jpg" alt="" width="1920" height="1080" />

In Richmond, Virginia the city received nearly one FOOT of snow! It smashed the daily snowfall record of two inches that was set on December 9, 1989! Snowfall records are kept on a daily, monthly, and yearly record. In the case above, the daily snowfall record (only for December 9) was 2 inches. However, the 11.5" in Richmond was nearly a record for the entire month of December as well!

<a href="https://media.weathernationtv.com/news/north-carolina-crippled-by-snow-ice-on-sunday/">Related Story: North Carolina Crippled by Snow and ice on Sunday</a>

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-100935" src="https://media.weathernationtv.com/app/uploads/2018/12/Capture-13.jpg" alt="" width="1920" height="1080" />

For all-time December snowstorms, this latest one ranks in at least the top three, if not top two. In Roanoke, Lynchburg and Blacksburg, Virginia this was the 3rd-snowiest storm ever recorded in December! In Richmond, Danville and Bluefield, WV this storm was the 2nd-snowiest ever recorded in December!

What do all of these cities have in common?
<ul>
 	<li>Richmond, VA - 11.5"</li>
 	<li>Roanoke, VA - 15.2"</li>
 	<li>Blacksburg, VA - 13.7"</li>
 	<li>Lynchburg, VA - 11.7"</li>
 	<li>Danville, VA - 12.5"</li>
 	<li>Bluefield, WV - 15.0"</li>
</ul>
All of these cities had their snowiest storm *this early* in a calendar year. All of those numbers you see next to the cities above classify as the biggest snow accumulation this early in the season.

More number crunching and record comparison will be done in the near future. If we find anything noteworthy, we'll pass it along to you. For now, enjoy the snow!

For WeatherNation, Meteorologist Steve Glazier

Where This Storm Stands in the Record Books

A Record Breaking Thanksgiving Travel Week Expected

It is that time of year again—when millions o

Windy System Blows Through Upper Midwest This Week

The Upper Midwest has been fairly quiet recen

Severe Weather Slides Through the South

Another storm system looks to target the sout

More Moisture For The Northeast This Week

As the most recent windy system moves northea

Hurricane Melissa Produces Strongest Gust Recorded in a Hurricane

Hurricane Melissa was a devastating category

Four Corners Expecting More Flooding Rain, Mountain Snow

A cut-off low will be moving out of southern

Trough Shifts East, Severe Storms & Flooding Possible

A strong storm system that brought severe sto