Garner's heavy holiday traffic; Saturday will be busiest on the roads
The holiday travel rush hit its peak Friday with last-minute shoppers crowding the lots of Garner's White Oak shopping area. Some people told WRAL News they waited up to an hour just to get a spot or to exit a lot.
"The traffic is unreal," Sarah Woodard of Raleigh said.
One shopper told WRAL News that traffic was so bad in the parking lot that when police were responding to an accident they had to park the cruiser and walk.
Angela Ely, now of Raleigh, told WRAL News, "I’ve never been stuck in a parking lot for an hour, and I’m from California."
More than 100 million Americans are expected to hit the roads between Friday and Monday to celebrate Christmas. In North Carolina, AAA expects 3.5 million people to make a trip of 50 miles or more over the next few days, most of them by car.
Auto club AAA forecasts that 115 million people in the U.S. will go 50 miles or more from home between Saturday and New Year’s Day. That’s up 2% over last year.
On the roads, Saturday is expected to be one of the busiest days this holiday season. The worst time to travel Saturday will be between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m.
The busiest days on the road will be Saturday and next Thursday, Dec. 28, according to transportation data provider INRIX.
The nationwide gas price average Friday was $3.13 a gallon, down 15 cents from a month ago and about 3 cents more than this time last year, according to AAA.
Clear skies ease pre-Christmas flights
A blockbuster season for U.S. airlines got off to a mostly smooth start. Fewer than 50 flights were canceled in the U.S. by mid-Friday, and about 1,200 were delayed, according to FlightAware. Airlines have canceled just 1.2% of U.S. flights so far this year, the lowest in five years.
The Transportation Security Administration screened more than 2.6 million passengers on Thursday, which had been projected to be one of the busiest travel days, along with Friday and New Year's Day. That's short of the record 2.9 million that agents screened on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, since travel tends to be more spread over over Christmas and New Year's.
Travel has been strong this year — surpassing pre-pandemic levels — even though many Americans say they are worried about the economy. The TSA has already screened 12.3% more travelers than it had by this time last year and 1.4% more than in 2019.
Airlines have sold 31% more tickets for international arrivals to global destinations between Dec. 21 and Dec. 31 compared to the similar period last year, according to travel data firm FowardKeys.
Weather stays clear for East Coast until after Christmas
In the U.S., AccuWeather forecasters say rain storms could hit the Pacific Northwest and the southern Plains states including Texas later this week, but things look brighter for population centers — and key airports — in the Northeast.
WRAL meteorologist Mike Maze said the coming weekend, including Christmas Eve, will be mild and clear, with temperatures in the mid-60s.
Clouds move into central North Carolina for Christmas Day, but it stays warm, with a high of 63.
Tuesday is the sole rainout of the holiday season in the Triangle.
"Some of the rain could be heavy enough for a low-end risk of localized flooding," Maze said.
The rain moves out for the end of the week, and a look ahead to New Year's Eve shows cooler weather on the way.
