Gas prices, number of travelers down this Thanksgiving

Raleigh, N.C. — AAA Carolinas predicts that fewer people in North and South Carolina will travel this Thanksgiving holiday than last year.

For those hitting the road, lower gas prices and sunny skies are on their side. Wednesday will be mostly sunny and cool with highs in the low 50s.

Find the lowest gas prices and get the complete weather forecast. 

The travel services organization said it expects about 25,000 fewer motorists and 21,000 fewer air passengers in the Carolinas to travel more than 50 miles from home this year than did in 2007.

That's the first Thanksgiving travel downturn in six years.

An estimated 1.8 million people in North Carolina and South Carolina will still travel, however.

Gas prices in both states are less than half of what they were two months ago, when prices hit $4 a gallon following Hurricane Ike.

Prices are down by more than a dollar compared with last Thanksgiving.