Holiday travel surge expected

AAA predicts record this Christmas season

A record number of Americans will travel during this Christmas holiday, according to AAA.

An estimated 107.3 million people will travel from Saturday through Jan. 1, marking the ninth-consecutive year of rising year-end holiday travel. That’s a 3.1 percent increase over last year and a 25 percent increase over 2005.

The vast majority of those travelers — 97.4 million — will be going by automobile, according to AAA.

“Middle America will also be up over last year and setting records as well,” said Michael Right, a regional spokesman for AAA.

Those driving through north Arkansas over the next few days could encounter ice and snow. After highs in the 60s on Thursday, a cold front will move through Arkansas on Friday, plummeting temperatures below freezing late that night, according to forecasts.

“Freezing rain and sleet likely before 7 a.m., then a chance of snow between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m.,” the National Weather Service predicted for Fayetteville on Saturday.

Northwest Arkansas could get a half-inch of accumulated snow Friday night into Saturday morning, and another two-tenths of an inch on Christmas Eve, said Amy Jankowski, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Tulsa.

Any snow that accumulates should melt the next

day as the temperature reaches the mid- to upper-30s, she said.

But a thin coating of ice underneath the snow could make driving treacherous, said Jankowski.

Drivers should check winter weather road conditions at idrivearkansas.com before beginning their journey, said Danny Straessle, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Transportation.

“Remember, it’s a ‘know before you go’ site, and we encourage everyone to take a look if their travels are on a state highway in the days ahead,” said Straessle.

Willie Gilmore, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in North Little Rock, said a dusting of accumulated snow on Friday night could reach as far south as Fort Smith and Clinton and the higher elevations of the Ouachita Mountains south of the Arkansas River. He said there might be fairly light accumulation in Harrison and Mountain Home.

Gilmore said Little Rock might see snow flurries on Christmas Eve but probably no accumulation.

Jim Branda, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Memphis, said the same was true for residents of Helena-West Helena in east Arkansas. Possible snow flurries from about 10 p.m. on Christmas Eve to 6 a.m. Christmas Day, but no accumulation.

“It’s not going to be enough to stick,” said Branda. “Sorry.”

Little Rock will have a high of about 40 degrees on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with lows of 27 degrees each night, according to the forecast. There’s a 90 percent chance of rain on Friday and a 20 percent chance on Saturday, but no more precipitation is predicted through Tuesday.

Gas prices are down 12 cents per gallon from last month but up 20 cents per gallon when compared with Christmas 2016, according to a AAA news release on Monday. Nationally, a gallon of gas on average costs $2.43.

Directors of airports in Little Rock and Northwest Arkansas said they had yet to receive travel estimates from the Transportation Security Administration for the holiday week.

Shane Carter, a spokesman for Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field in Little Rock, said the airport wasn’t experiencing any problems on Tuesday in connection with the 11-hour shutdown of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Sunday because of a fire in an underground electrical facility.

AAA predicted that 50.9 million people in the United States would travel 50 miles or more away from home during the Thanksgiving holiday. That was a 3.3 percent increase over last year, with 1.6 million more people taking to the roads, skies, rails and waterways. AAA’s Thanksgiving travel period is five days, compared with 10 days for the Christmas holiday.