Midwest Weather Causes Travel Nightmare With 15,000 Disrupted Flights
Many passengers flying home after the Thanksgiving holiday weren't in luck after a major snowfall struck the Midwest, leading to many thousands of cancelled and delayed flights.
Between Saturday, November 29 and into Sunday morning, November 30, more than 15,000 flights were cancelled or delayed throughout the U.S.
- According to FlightAware, 1,974 flights were cancelled on November 29 into or out of the U.S., and 8,990 more flights were delayed.
- On November 30, 3,674 flights were delayed, and another 564 were cancelled by 11 a.m. central time, FlightAware reported.
- The Midwest was socked with a massive winter storm. The major amounts of snow dumped on the region led to a series of traffic crashes, including a 45-car pileup along I-70 in Indiana, according to Fox Weather. Compounding the travel nightmare, the snowfall came on what is one of the year's biggest travel days as people tried to make it home from the Thanksgiving holiday.
- A Delta flight in Iowa skidded off the runway, causing more issues at that airport, NBC News reported. According to NBC News, the post-Thanksgiving storm brought "over a foot of snow and strong winds to parts of the Midwest."
Midwestern Airports Like Chicago O'Hare Cancelled a Large Portion of Their Flights
(Photo by Jim Vondruska/Getty Images)
Midwestern airports in Chicago, Detroit, and Iowa were particularly hard hit with cancellations and delays.
- On November 29, 45% of flights out of or into Chicago O'Hare airport were cancelled, and 38% were delayed. Chicago's Midway airport fared only slightly better, with 36% of its flights cancelled and 14% delayed.
- In Milwaukee, 28% of flights were cancelled. In Detroit, 30% of flights were delayed, and 6% were cancelled, and 34% of the flights at the Des Moines airport in Iowa were cancelled—more than half of the flights at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport were delayed. All of the data is from FlightAware. At South Bend airport, 47% of flights were cancelled.
- On November 30, 23% of flights were delayed and 9% were cancelled at O'Hare. At the Des Moines airport, 19% were cancelled and 10% were delayed. Minneapolis and Detroit airports also were still reporting a significant number of delayed flights, but fewer cancellations, according to FlightAware.
Another Major Storm Is Headed Toward the Northeast U.S.
On November 30, Weather.com reported that another major storm was on the way. "After Chan blows through the Midwest and Great Lakes, it will take aim at the Northeast, potentially bringing widespread icing and significant snow," the site reported.
"Back-to-back winter storms will bring more snow to the Midwest and Great Lakes on Monday. Winter Storm Chan is set to deliver snow and ice to the Northeast Tuesday into Wednesday. I-95 cities need to monitor closely, especially Boston," according to Weather.com.
"This comes after Winter Storm Bellamy dumped double-digit snowfall amounts across a large swath of the Midwest on Saturday. Chicago O'Hare reported 8.4" of snow, making it the snowiest November day on record," the site noted.
"There is going to be a transition zone that sets up somewhere in the Ohio Valley Monday night into Tuesday morning. This is where warm air aloft will be overriding the cold air at the surface. This will result in a mix of rain, sleet and freezing rain," Weather.com advised.