Early Look At Thanksgiving Forecast For Virginia, DC

WASHINGTON, DC — Before you give thanks next week, you might make a wish or two that the weather forecasters are wrong about weekend travel conditions ahead of Thanksgiving. While there is a slim chance of rain for the Nov. 23 holiday, if you're traveling this Saturday, Nov. 18, there's a 60 percent chance of rain. Things improve considerably the following Saturday, Nov. 25, says Accuweather, with sunny skies and a cool 47 degrees for the high.

Re-surging cold air may spin up a storm along the East Coast around Thanksgiving Day, according to AccuWeather in a broad outlook. Its Washington DC forecast calls for a 30 percent chance of rain that day, with a high of 59 degrees. So early Black Friday shoppers or families heading to Christmas tree lots could get wet, although skies will clear off as the day goes on and the high will be in the low 50s.

The Weather Channel forecast is calling for a cooler Thanksgiving, with a high of 45 degrees that day and a 10 percent chance of rain Thursday and into Black Friday. Rain chances climb to 40 percent the Saturday after Thanksgiving, when many families are on the road.

What could happen as a result is a "potent" storm system may trigger flight delays for early Thanksgiving travel Friday into the weekend in parts of the Midwest and East, according to The Weather Channel.

"If early indications are correct... gusty winds will sweep cold air from the northern Plains to the Gulf Coast, Appalachians and eventually the Atlantic Seaboard," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Brett Anderson said in a release.

The cold outbreak may last a couple of days, or perhaps right through the Thanksgiving weekend, AccuWeather Long-Range Meteorologist Evan Duffey said in the release. "In terms of an East Coast storm, we are not expecting powerhouse event, but rather more of the nuisance variety," Duffey said.

That storm will carry the potential for drenching rain along the Interstate-95 corridor from Washington, D.C., to Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York City around Thanksgiving Day.

Here is the current forecast for the days leading up to Thanksgiving weekend, according to weather.com:

• Wednesday: Most sunny, high of 51
• Thursday: Partly cloudy, high of 59
• Friday: Sunny, high of 51
• Saturday: Rain, high of 55
• Sunday: Partly cloudy, high of 48
• Monday: Sunny, high of 43
• Tuesday: Partly cloudy, high of 52
• Wednesday: Partly cloudy, high of 49
• Thanksgiving Day: Partly cloudy, high of 45
• Friday: Mostly sunny, high of 48
• Saturday: Rain, high of 51
• Sunday: Partly cloudy, high of 49.

Tom Davis, Patch Staff, contributed to this report

Photo via Pixabay