Thanksgiving Week Travelers Can Expect Snowy, Icy Highways Around Wyoming

The fourth Thursday of November is only days away, and Mother Nature is cooking up some winter weather for Wyoming this Thanksgiving.

Turkeys are prone to cause their own road hazards throughout the Cowboy State, but there will be more than that to worry about for those traveling for the holiday, especially driving across the state’s vast empty spaces. 

Wyomingites should expect snow and noticeably colder temperatures this week, which could impact roads and other means of transportation around the region.

“I love to use the word ‘unsettled’ when there are several things going on,” said Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day. “The overall message is a colder trend and a couple of systems that may cause some problems across the state. It doesn't look like a major snowstorm, but it's going to be enough to cause some travel headaches.”

Highway Holiday Hazards

Thanksgiving week will begin with a winter weather system that will start Sunday evening and continue into Monday, with snow falling primarily in western Wyoming. Then another system will bring snow to central, western and southern Wyoming on Tuesday and Wednesday, Day said.

Day said that while these winter weather systems have different areas of impact, they both will bring snow and cold to Wyoming’s busiest and most dangerous highway, Interstate 80. Anyone planning a trip on I-80 will want to anticipate road hazards and traffic delays.

“I think that the I-80 corridor and the stretch of roads adjacent to it will be most impacted by these systems,” he said. “It doesn’t look like a huge thing, but enough to make roads icy. I certainly would advise folks to be on the lookout for black ice with both events.”

Winter weather has already wreaked havoc on I-80 in the last few weeks. Accidents, slowdowns and standstills have become common as winter weather sets in, which could be exacerbated by an influx of holiday travel.

Thanksgiving Day is looking calm but cold, at least in Wyoming. Day said there will be a noticeable drop in temperature on the holiday that will persist into the weekend, but chances of snow, at least on Thanksgiving Day, are low.

Flying Turkeys

Looking at the larger travel picture, Day sees winter weather causing delays and winter weather issues at airports across the United States, and the Rocky Mountain Region will be in the thick of it.

That means people planning to fly out of Denver International Airport or Salt Lake City International Airport may have some problems or delays. That also could be true for where people may be traveling.

“As we get into that really busy travel period, the biggest weather impacts will be in the Rockies, the Pacific Northwest and California,” he said. “If we were to look at airport hubs, I think anyone traveling into the Great Lakes and Midwest needs to watch what’s happening.”

Based on the incoming systems, Day anticipates that airports in the Midwest and Northeast U.S. might struggle with departures and arrivals Tuesday and Wednesday because of colder temperatures and the possibility of snow. Chicago, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Detroit, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh will experience the brunt of the winter weather Thanksgiving Day.

It’s still too early to determine anything with certainty after Thanksgiving. Day said more snow could fall in the Northeast over the weekend, complicating post-turkey day travel.

Overall, Day doesn’t expect next week’s weather to be particularly intense or record-breaking. There will be “more weather” around Thanksgiving nationwide.

“I see worse, for sure,” he said. “But this certainly looks like more weather around Thanksgiving, both before and after the holiday, across the country, than we've had over the last couple of years.”

Travel Times

Wyomingites planning a long-distance drive to Thanksgiving dinner will want to know when they should leave for the safest drive. Day has the same answer for winter drivers, regardless of the holiday.

“What I tell people this time of year is that the roads tend to be the most dangerous from the late afternoon and evening hours through the late morning hours,” he said. “If people ask me for advice on travel in the winter in this part of the country, I say to avoid that time frame when it's dark and the potential for black ice is the highest.”

That’s not to say I-80 and other highways aren’t and won’t be hazardous during the day. But even with a super low sun angle, some light is better than no light.  

“You tend to find the roads aren’t as bad during the day,” he said. “You have less situations where roads and highways can get iced up.”

Day anticipates highway hazards for Wyomingites driving throughout Thanksgiving week, but wouldn’t hazard any guesses of how treacherous the roads will be. Based on the feedback he’s received, everything’s relative.

“I know people who will drive in the teeth of a blizzard and say it was fine,” he said. “But then we'll get a half inch of snow and somebody will say they barely made it through. Everybody's threshold of what they can handle on the roads is different, so I don't want to make too much of a broad statement.”

Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.