Thanksgiving Holiday Travel Issues Persist Following Multiple Snowstorms

Chicago’s November Snow Breaks Record

It was a combination of weather factors occurring at the worst possible time: 8.4 inches of snow falling in a day on one of the nation's busiest travel hubs when tens of millions were on the move, trying to get home following the Thanksgiving holiday.

That snow total was recorded Saturday at O'Hare International Airport and it set a single-day record for November at the airport, the National Weather Service confirmed. The previous record, set on Nov. 6, 1951, was 8 inches.

And that left travelers like Don Herrian among the masses sitting at the airport, waiting to get home amid the hundreds of flight cancellations that piled up as quickly as the swiftly falling snow.

“It is what it is,” Herrian said. “It’s congested but that’s expected due to the snow, the delays and the holidays.”

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The 76-year-old retiree from Ardmore, Oklahoma, had visited his daughter and her family in Indianapolis. He said his first flight was three hours late, and his connecting flight to Oklahoma City from Chicago was already running another two hours behind.

“I just hope I get home tonight,” he said.

Roads leading to the airport were packed Sunday with slow-moving vehicles even after the roads had been cleared of snow. Inside, delayed travelers crowded into gate seating areas, restaurants and sports bars to pass the time. Others grabbed spots on the floors of the terminals, snacking, knitting or scrolling their phones.

About 300 flights into and out of O’Hare had been canceled by early evening, while about 1,600 had been delayed, according to the tracking site FlightAware.

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Planes were being de-iced at several airports across the country on Sunday, including at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport, according to the FAA.

Over 12 inches of snow had fallen since Saturday in areas close to Lake Michigan. Hundreds of churches in western Michigan told worshippers to stay home or watch services online.

By early Sunday evening, there were over 400 flights into and out of Detroit Metro Airport that were delayed and over 45 canceled, according to FlightAware.

(MORE: A New Winter Storm Is On Its Way)

Elsewhere in Iowa, gusty winds Sunday were blowing snow back onto roads, extending hazardous travel conditions, the National Weather Service said.

“We did have areas of Iowa and Illinois that saw over one foot of snow,” said meteorologist Andrew Orrison.

Over 16 inches of snow fell in Fort Dodge, Iowa, according to the National Weather Service.

Orrison said snow in the Great Lakes region was tapering off, but a new storm was heading to the mid-Atlantic and Northeast, with up to a foot of snow by Tuesday.

“It's going to be the first snowfall of the season for many of these areas, and it's going to be rather significant," Orrison said. “The good news is that it does not look like the major cities at this point are going to be looking at any significant snowfall.”

At O’Hare on Sunday, Will Barney, 25, was trying to get home to Charlotte, North Carolina.

“I think I’m on my third delay,” Barney, a data governance analyst, said while sitting in a corridor between concourses. “I just kept walking until I could find somewhere to sit down so I’m not elbow-to-elbow,” he said.

Traffic was so bad getting into the airport that his father dropped him off at the car rental entrance, and he took the internal airport train in.

“You had Thanksgiving. Then you add the snow on top of that,” Barney said. “Thank God the government’s not shut down too.”

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.