New Year's Forecast: Travel trouble brewing in Midwest, Northeast and California
Whether heading out of town for hundreds of miles or just a few to the town center for New Year's celebrations, there will be some trouble spots in the United States due to snow, wind, cold and rain.
As 2025 comes to a close, AccuWeather’s Ali Reid breaks down the numbers to show which states’ drivers have faced the greatest risk while driving during the winter season.
Travel weather will be good across much of the Lower 48 states for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, but there will be some trouble spots, including the heavily populated areas of the Northeast, Upper Midwest and California.
For airline passengers, the big three airports in the Midwest—Chicago, Detroit and Minneapolis—will have the most direct weather impacts due to snow, wind and Arctic cold. The wintry conditions will be due to lake-effect snow and a clipper storm passing through the region.
Because of the high volume of flights in and out of these major hubs and the secondary hubs in the region, ripple effects are possible throughout the nation, as some aircraft and crews may be displaced or delayed.
The amount of airline disruptions for Wednesday and Thursday will pale in comparison to the storm activity last week and from the powerful storm that affected the Midwest and Northeast into Monday night with high winds, heavy snow, ice and rain.
Enough snow and wind activity may also directly affect flight operations in Pittsburgh, New York City and Boston on New Year's Day. There could also be more than confetti in the air at Times Square in Midtown Manhattan on New Year's Eve.
Motorists in the zone from the Upper Midwest to the Northeast, especially around the Great Lakes and the central and northern parts of the Appalachians, should be prepared for quick-changing road conditions due to pockets of general snow and more intense snow squalls that could suddenly reduce visibility and coat roads.
Thousands of miles to the southwest, after a few days of dry weather, a storm will spread areas of rain into California, first on New Year's Eve, then the surrounding states on New Year's Day.
Enough rain may fall at Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco airports to result in some airline delays. Roads in the region will become slick as rain becomes more widespread in the Southwest states, as well as in parts of the Northwest.
Since this storm is expected to be warmer than the most recent systems, snow levels will be higher and possibly above many of the passes in the region.
For those traveling over the balance of the nation, sunglasses will be handy by day. The record warmth from the southern part of the Plains to the Southeast will be long gone, but it should be far from cold by Wednesday and Thursday from Texas to Kansas, Arkansas and Louisiana.
Cool air will linger in the Southeast, particularly in Florida, compared to historical averages. Still, many people from the Northern states heading to the theme parks in central Florida will probably not mind highs in the upper 50s to the mid-60s.
If you are driving a long distance this week, be sure to check the weather forecast for various points along the way in case of a rest stop break, breakdown or accident.
Confetti falls as people celebrate the new year in New York's Times Square, Sunday, Jan. 1, 2017. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
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