The period between Christmas and New Year's Day is traditionally both a very popular travel period and a time when many parts of the country are at risk of winter storms and other weather-related issues.
At the start of the week, a blizzard that began in midwestern states of Nebraska, Kansas and South Dakota steadily moved east and led to flood advisories and thousands of flight delays in cities such as New York and Washington, D.C.
Related: These are the worst times to travel during the holiday season
Statistics from FlightAware show that over 8,000 flights were canceled across the U.S. on Dec. 26 just as hundreds of thousands of travelers were attempting to get home from Christmas travel. As one of the epicenters of the storm, Denver International Airport was hit particularly hard with over 48% of departing flights delayed and 1% canceled.
Shutterstock
Winter storms and flooding hit Midwest but flights are back to normal for now
As Southwest Airlines (LUV) -) operates a major hub out of the city, the airline had a wave of delays and cancelations reminiscent of the much more severe 2022 post-Christmas fiasco.
More Travel:
- A new travel term is taking over the internet (and reaching airlines and hotels)
- The 10 best airline stocks to buy now
- Airlines see a new kind of traveler at the front of the plane
While the Midwestern storm has since slowed down slightly and allowed airlines to restart flights and redirect travelers to their destinations after brief delays, parts of New York, Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia are currently under flood advisories.
The Flood Watch affects more than 10 million people and, while flights are currently operating as normal, airports are under alert for potential problems if the situation gets worse. As always in the case of bad weather, several airlines reminded travelers to periodically check the status of their flight online to avoid an unnecessary trip to the airport.
For the weekend ahead, storms and more heavy rains are predicted for parts of the Pacific Northwest and California. Los Angeles and San Francisco are on particularly high alert for Saturday, Dec. 30.
"A band of locally heavy rain lasting for several hours in any one spot will press inland to end the week and start the weekend," Accuweather Senior Meteorologist Heather Zehr said of the forecast. "Rainfall totals will be somewhat limited by the short time frame the precipitation can fall but can still be noteworthy,"
In or heading to the UK? There are bad storms there too
Across the Atlantic Ocean in the United Kingdom, winds of up to 80 miles per hour brought over by Storm Gerrit from the Atlantic pushed International Aviation Group (BABWF) -)-owned British Airways to cancel at least 20 flights in London and Bristol airports on Wednesday, Dec. 27. Many of those were flights carrying passengers home from European cities such as Barcelona, Paris and Rome and Aberdeen but many outgoing flights to the same destinations were also canceled.
"We have apologized to our customers for any disruption to their travel plans and our teams are working hard to get them on their way as quickly as possible," a British Airways spokesperson said of the changes.
A video of a Boeing 777 (BA) -) bouncing on the runway while struggling to land in the fog and wind has also been going viral on social media (the pilot landed it safely without any injuries.)
