Thanksgiving weather forecast: Where to expect travel delays
Holiday travel weather. (ABC News)
(NEW YORK) — Traveling to your Thanksgiving destination may be smoother than heading home, with a cross-country storm possibly bringing rain and snow to parts of the Northeast and Midwest.
Here’s a look at the Thanksgiving week weather forecast:
Tuesday
A winter storm watch is in place for North Dakota and Minnesota, where 3 to 9 inches of snow may fall from Monday night through Wednesday morning. Wind gusts may reach 40 mph, causing blowing and drifting snow.
Meanwhile, on the East Coast, rain will hit the Interstate 95 corridor from Washington, D.C., to Boston, on Tuesday afternoon and evening.
Wednesday
In the Northeast, a few passing showers are possible from Washington, D.C., to New York City on Wednesday morning.
In the Midwest, snow will start falling across much of Michigan on Wednesday.
Thursday
On Thanksgiving, the lake-effect snow machine will turn on and bring a blast of snow to the downwind side of the Great Lakes through Friday.
A winter storm watch is already in place for towns like Orchard Park, New York, just south of Buffalo, for Wednesday night through Friday.
More than 6 inches of snow is possible and wind gusts up to 45 mph could lead to whiteout conditions.
Friday
On Friday, a new storm system will begin moving cross-country from the Pacific Northwest.
The storm may bring snow on Friday to the Plains, from the Dakotas to northern Missouri.
Saturday
On Saturday, rain is possible from Missouri to Louisiana, while snow is possible from Illinois to Michigan, including Chicago and Detroit.
Sunday
By Sunday afternoon and evening, this system may bring rain to much of the East Coast.
Sunday is predicted to be the busiest air travel day for Thanksgiving.
In this Aug. 1, 2023, file photo, Special Counsel Jack Smith delivers remarks on an unsealed indictment, including four felony counts against former President Donald Trump, in Washington, D.C. Drew Angerer/Getty Images, FILE
(WASHINGTON) — Attorneys representing former special counsel Jack Smith sent a letter to Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley Tuesday seeking to correct what they call “inaccurate” claims that Smith wiretapped or spied on Republican lawmakers as part of his investigation into President Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
“Although you have not reached out to us to discuss this matter, we are compelled to correct inaccurate assertions made by you and others concerning the issuance of a grand jury subpoena for the toll records of eight Senators and one Member of the House of Representatives,” attorneys Lanny Breuer and Peter Koski wrote. “Mr. Smith’s actions as Special Counsel were consistent with the decisions of a prosecutor who has devoted his career to following the facts and the law, without fear or favor and without regard for the political consequences.”
The outreach from Smith’s team is the latest in a series of efforts by the former special counsel to correct the record on his parallel investigations into Trump that resulted in two indictments for Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified records after leaving the White House in his first term and his attempt to subvert the 2020 election result.
Trump pleaded not guilty in both cases before both were dropped following Trump’s reelection, due to a long-standing Justice Department policy barring the prosecution of a sitting president.
Both cases have since been cast by senior leadership of Trump’s Justice Department — many of whom previously served as Trump’s personal attorneys — as prime examples of political weaponization of law enforcement.
In the letter from his attorneys, as well as two public appearances on university panels, Smith has disputed that he or his team were ever motivated by politics in their prosecutions of the president.
In their letter Tuesday, Smith’s attorneys sought to refute a narrative stemming from a document released by the FBI on the eve of Attorney General Pam Bondi’s appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this month.
The record showed that during Smith’s investigation, his office sought limited phone toll data from eight senators and a member of the House in the days surrounding the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol.
While such records would not involve the content of any phone calls or messages, multiple Republicans on the committee incorrectly claimed at the hearing the next day that Smith had “tapped” their phones or “spied” on them.
“What was going on here? Who ordered this? Who ordered the tapping of the phones of United States Senators?” Republican Sen. Josh Hawley asked Bondi during the hearing.
“We will be looking at all aspects of this, and I have talked to Director Patel at length about this,” Bondi responded, referring to FBI Director Kash Patel.
Smith’s attorneys, in their letter, stood firmly behind the move to seek the toll records as “entirely proper, lawful, and consistent with established Department of Justice policy,” and further confirmed that Smith received approval to do so from career officials in the Department’s Public Integrity Section.
“The subpoena’s limited temporal range is consistent with a focused effort to confirm or refute reports by multiple news outlets that during and after the January 6 riots at the Capitol, President Trump and his surrogates attempted to call Senators to urge them to delay certification of the 2020 election results,” Breuer and Koski wrote. “In fact, by the time Mr. Smith’s team conducted the toll records analysis, it had been reported that President Trump and Rudy Giuliani tried calling Senators for such a purpose, with one Senator releasing a voicemail from Mr. Giuliani.”
Smith’s attorneys also noted that, during Trump’s first term, the Justice Department “purportedly obtained communications records from two Democratic Members of Congress” as part of an investigation into media leaks.
The letter also criticizes Patel for suggesting in a statement that Smith sought to cover up his office’s use of the toll records, claiming he put them “in a “lockbox in a vault, and then put that vault in a cyber place where no one can see or search these files.”
“It is not clear what cyber place in a vault in a lockbox Director Patel is describing, but Mr. Smith’s use of these records is inconsistent with someone who was trying to conceal them,” the letter said.
Smith’s attorneys point to Smith’s final report on his probe, released in January of this year, which specifically describes some of the calls made to Republican senators during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, and contains as a footnote that refers to the use of toll records in Smith’s investigation.
“Moreover, the precise records at issue were produced in discovery to President Trump’s personal lawyers, some of whom now serve in senior positions within the Department of Justice,” Smith’s attorneys added in their letter.
A massive fire is seen erupting at the Chevron refinery in El Segundo, California, on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2025. (KABC)
(LOS ANGELES) — Firefighters were battling a blaze at a Chevron refinery in Southern California late on Thursday, company and government officials said, after a massive fireball erupted at the facility.
It was not immediately clear what caused the blaze, which was burning in El Segundo, a city in Los Angeles County.
“All refinery personnel and contractors have been accounted for and there are no injuries,” Allison Cook, a Chevron spokesperson, told ABC News.
Gov. Gavin Newsom was briefed on the fire, his office said.
“Our office is coordinating in real time with local and state agencies to protect the surrounding community and ensure public safety,” the office said in a statement.
The sprawling refinery, which is located just south of Los Angeles International Airport, has its own fire department on site, according to its website. Chevron’s firefighters were joined by emergency personnel from El Segundo and Manhattan Beach in responding to the “isolated” fire within the facility, the Chevron spokesperson said.
“No evacuation orders for area residents have been put in place by emergency response agencies monitoring the incident, and no exceedances have been detected by the facilities fence line monitoring system,” the spokesperson said.
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass said she’d been briefed on the fire. She also said she’d spoken with Holly J. Mitchell, the supervisor who represents El Segundo.
“LAFD stands at the ready to assist with any mutual aid request. There is no known impact to LAX at this time,” Bass said on social media. “We will continue to monitor this situation.”
A 3-hour shelter-in-place order was issued for areas within the Tree Section of Manhattan Beach, according to Alert SouthBay. “Bring all people and pets indoors,” the alert said. In an earlier social media post, the alert system said, “There is NO PUBLIC threat at this time and NO evacuation orders in place at this time.”
The fire department in nearby Torrance, California, issued an alert, saying it was aware of the fire, but there was “no impact” to the city.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
ABC News’ Naomi Vanderlip contributed to this report.
The Chelan County Sheriff’s Office released photos of Travis Decker in a wanted poster. (Chelan County Sheriff’s Office)
(CHELAN COUNTY, Wash.) — After a two-day search of the area where Travis Decker allegedly murdered his three young daughters, the FBI said they will be analyzing “several items” that were recovered near the crime scene.
The FBI concluded its two-day grid search operation on Tuesday, focusing within the vicinity of Rock Island Campground in Leavenworth, Washington, where the girls bodies’ were found back on June 2, W. Mike Herrington, special agent in charge of the FBI Seattle field office, said in a press release on Thursday.
The purpose of search was to “locate Travis Decker, discover signs of his whereabouts or find any other evidence of the murder of his three daughters,” Herrington said.
Over 100 personnel were deployed and 1,000,000 square meters were searched, but Decker has not been located, Herrington said.
“A search of this magnitude and detail has not previously taken place in this area,” Herrington said.
During the investigation, Herrington said search personnel recovered “several items that are being examined to determine if they are related to this investigation,” saying that final results “will take some time.”
“Finding this potential evidence emphasizes the value in having various teams search an area multiple times, especially in such challenging conditions,” Herrington said.
Herrington added that officials are “committed to bringing every available FBI resource that will advance this case for as long as it takes.”
During a press conference on Monday, Chelan County Sheriff Mike Morrison said officials “will not relent” and “not give up” on the search efforts, even if locating Decker takes years.
“The girls would not want us to give up,” Morrison said on Monday. “If it’s not me wearing this uniform, it’s another Chelan County sheriff. We will find him, in one fashion or another.”
Paityn Decker, 9; Evelyn Decker, 8; and Olivia Decker, 5, were found dead near the Rock Island Campground after they left home for a planned visit with their father on May 30, according to police.
The U.S. Marshals Service is still offering a reward of up to $20,000 for information leading directly to Decker’s arrest.
Anyone who sees Decker or knows of his whereabouts should call 911 immediately and not contact or approach him, officials said. He is currently wanted for three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of kidnapping, officials said.
Decker is considered armed and dangerous, officials said.
