Christmas Travel: Forecast Trouble Spots

by Jonathan Erdman, weather.com Meteorologist

Updated: December 22, 2011 7:25 am ET

The trade group Airlines for America predicts 43.3 million travelers will fly on U.S. carriers over the three-week holiday period through Jan. 7. AAA estimates 83.6 million people will drive to visit family or take vacations over the holidays, roughly 1 in every 3 or 4 Americans.  Poor weather over the holidays can inconvenience millions of travelers.


To help you plan for your trip, we're stepping through each day highlighting weather that may impact travel both at major airports and interstates.

Thursday, December 22

Trouble spot #1: Rain spreads from the South early in the day to the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic States by evening.

Trouble spot #2: Snow spreads south from Colorado and Kansas to New Mexico, northwest Oklahoma and west Texas.