Bay Area Thanksgiving Forecast Is Bright As Storms Brew Back East

SAN FRANCISCO — The Thanksgiving forecast is taking shape in Northern California, and the outlook is bright for those celebrating close to home. But storms brewing elsewhere in the country may cause a few headaches for holiday travelers.

Millions of travelers will hit the road or take to the skies this week to celebrate the holiday with their families, and those welcoming visitors or staying on the West Coast should have largely pleasant and uneventful weather to contend with, according to the latest forecasts.

In the Bay Area, the National Weather Service outlined "fairly uncomplicated" predictions Monday, forecasting calm and dry weather with a well-timed warming trend leading into Thanksgiving Day.

"The rest of Monday users in a trend of warming and drying conditions with fairly calm weather expected through the week as back-to-back ridges dominate the weather pattern," NWS Bay Area forecasters wrote. "Temperatures warm in the mid-week but back off into the late week with a brief trough between ridges."

For those with travel plans that include the Midwest or Northeast, the weather may be less than ideal. According to AccuWeather, rain and snow could cause some travel issues for the eastern third of the country on both ends of the holiday week.

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"Following many weeks of relatively tranquil weather over much of the central and eastern United States, a significant storm that has been on AccuWeather meteorologists' radar will gather rain, snow, wind and some ice just in time for some of the peak travel days ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday," wrote Alex Sosnowski, a senior meteorologist at AccuWeather. "There is also a chance a separate storm could cause trouble for some heading home over the weekend."

Forecasters believe the greatest impacts will materialize Tuesday, with a few downpours likely and from the Midwest to the Mid-Atlantic and snow possible around northern Pennsylvania, upstate New York, and northern portions of New England. A late-week storm could swing northeast over the weekend, impacting return trips.

In the Bay Area, the Climate Prediction Center favors warmer and drier conditions winning out over the post-Thanksgiving weekend, carrying the trend into the end of the month.