Travel on Christmas Eve

Just in time for Christmas, a developing storm will create headaches for anyone planning to travel east of the Mississippi River later this week. The storm will drop heavy snow on the Great Lakes and bring thunderstorms, heavy rain, and gusty winds to almost the entire East Coast. Merry Christmas!

The bulk of the storm occurring on Christmas Eve is reminiscent of what happened the day before Thanksgiving, when a storm dropped heavy snow on the megalopolis and snarled air traffic on the busiest travel day of the year. Thankfully for travelers, the storm will form further inland this year, providing heavy snow to parts of the Great Lakes (mostly Michigan and Ontario) and heavy rain for almost everyone to the storm's east.

Let's take a look at the storm's impacts, beginning with the most hated and loved four-letter-word in the country.

Snow

If you're dreaming of a white Christmas and you live in western Michigan, you're in luck, my friend. The most likely area to see snow from this system is along the shores of Lakes Michigan and Superior. The location of the low pressure system will drag large amounts of warm, moist air north from the Gulf of Mexico, so the storm will be a rainmaker for almost everyone except for that narrow corridor near Lake Michigan.

The exact location of the heaviest snow is a little uncertain right now, as the exact track of the cyclone will determine where the heavier bands of snow set up. Runs of both the European and GFS models this morning show that a coating of snow will fall from the northern half of Illinois and across the lake into western Michigan and the U.P. The parallel GFS is painting the heaviest snow across eastern Wisconsin right now, as it takes the low farther to the west than the other two models.