Holiday travelers must expect flight cancellations as severe storms hit the south

Leisure travelers heading into what is expected to be one of the busiest travel weekends of the year are already facing delays as a severe storm system barrels across the southern United States.

The severe storms in the region prompted the National Weather Service to issue flash flood warnings for Dallas on Thursday afternoon. The FAA had ordered ground stops at two Texas airports, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Love Field Airport, which were lifted at 1 p.m. local time.

According to flight tracking website Flight Aware, more than 570 flights to or from the U.S. were canceled Thursday, with most of those flights going to or from Dallas-Fort Worth.

The Storm Prediction Center has issued a tornado warning for nearly 9 million people in parts of southeast Texas and east-central Louisiana until 7 p.m. CST.

According to the Storm Prediction Center, over 4 million people are under a Level 3 out of 5 severe storm threat in Southeast Texas, including Houston, as of Thursday afternoon. The center is warning of multiple tornadoes, including one or two strong tornadoes, and large hail from East Texas this afternoon and overnight to Louisiana, southern Arkansas and well west of central Mississippi.

The threat of a severe storm is expected to increase across the Southern Plains and Lower Mississippi River Valley through Thursday afternoon and is expected to continue into the evening as a low pressure system strengthens across the region.

Storms could potentially bring severe wind gusts, damaging hail and some tornadoes to cities like Houston and Austin.

An isolated severe storm threat is spreading across central Texas into central Arkansas, western Mississippi and southern Louisiana, including cities such as Dallas, Fort Worth, Little Rock and Baton Rouge. The total population exposed to a severe storm threat on Thursday exceeds 20 million people.

There is a strong risk of storms this weekend

The severe storm threat in the south is expected to decrease on Friday but increase again on Saturday.

“It appears that all severe weather modes and hazards could occur, including large hail, damaging winds and tornadoes, as storms develop steadily east-northeast Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening,” the Storm Prediction Center warns.

Cities like Houston, Memphis, New Orleans, Birmingham and Montgomery could have a lower chance of storms on Saturday.

This series of storms could impact the East Coast through Sunday, potentially causing additional delays for those traveling home from the holidays.

According to AAA, record numbers of travelers are expected in 2024. The association expects that from December 21 to January 1, 119.3 million people will travel 50 miles or more from home. That is 3 million more travelers than in the same period last year.