WASHINGTON, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- Thanksgiving travelers from New England to the Washington area can expect snow and sleet to foul the highways on the busiest travel day of the year, forecasters said.
The National Weather Service predicted rain for the much of the East Coast from Florida on north as a northeaster moves up.
"Rain is expected for coastal areas, and snow for the Central Appalachians and into inland parts of the Northeast U.S., which should adversely affect travel on Wednesday," the agency said in an overview.
Winter storm warnings were issued for inland areas from New England to the mountains of western Virginia and North Carolina. With the storm moving up from the south, highways in the north were expected to be at their worst late Wednesday afternoon and into the evening, a time when many people would likely be traveling.
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"Anyone with holiday travel plans Wednesday should complete travel no later than 7 a.m. Wednesday to avoid any significant weather-related delayys or travel after the roads are cleared later Wednesday night or Thursday," the NWS warned in an advisory for northwestern New Jersey and the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania.
The American Automobile Association repeated the warning for New Jersey, where a million people are expected to be on the move Wednesday.
"Wednesday can turn into a chaotic and frightening scene of events on the roadways along the East Coast if the weather is as bad as predicted," said Tracy Noble, an AAA Mid-Atlantic spokesperson.
The storm was expected to bring heavy wet snow likely to cause power failures.
In central Massachusetts, some high school athletic directors were making contingency plan if snow continues to fall into Thanksgiving. The last time high school Thanksgiving football games were delayed by weather was in 1989 when the area got about a foot of snow for the holiday.
"It's not a game you want to postpone if it's possible to played," Fitchburg High athletic director Ray Cosenza told the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.
