Thanksgiving travel expected to set record
For many Butler County residents, traveling for Thanksgiving is part of the holiday tradition.
Travel service agency AAA is predicting about 79.9 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home this weekend, which would be the most for Thanksgiving travel since AAA began keeping track in 2000.
“Thanksgiving is the busiest holiday for travel, and this year we’re expecting to set new records across the board, from driving to flying and cruising,” said Stacey Barber, vice president of AAA Travel. “Americans reconnect with family and friends over Thanksgiving, and travel is a big part of that.” She added that “AAA continues to see travel demand soar” since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year’s projection of almost 80 million travelers is an increase of 1.7 million people from 2023.
Local AAA spokesperson Jim Garrity said his agency has expanded its forecast window as well to include the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and the Monday after.
“We did that to more accurately capture when people are traveling,” Garrity said. “People tend to leave that Tuesday, and people come back that Monday. That’s why we extended it there, where in the past we have only looked at Wednesday through Sunday.”
AAA projects a record 71.7 million people will travel by car over Thanksgiving, which is an additional 1.3 million travelers on the road compared to last year.
Thanksgiving air travel also is expected to set a record, with AAA projecting 5.84 million people will fly domestically this holiday. That’s an increase of 2% compared to last year and a nearly 11% increase over 2019.
Nearly 2.3 million people are expected to travel by other modes of transportation, including buses, cruises and trains.
This category is seeing an increase of almost 9% compared to last year and an 18% jump over 2019, in large part due to the popularity of cruises, according to AAA.
Garrity said the general rule of thumb for those driving is no matter which day this coming weekend, the busiest time frame each day for travel is between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.
“Tuesday and Wednesday are going to be very busy on the roadways,” Garrity said. “You are going to have a lot of people who are regular commuters going to work, and they will be mixing with people who are getting a head start over the weekend. Give yourself more time no matter when you leave.”
Gasoline prices in Pennsylvania are down from 20 to 30 cents across all grades of fuel when compared to Thanksgiving 2023.
As of Nov. 25, the average price for a gallon of regular-grade gasoline was $3.24 in Pennsylvania, while the national average stood at $3.05.
The average price in Butler County came in at $3.28.
“Crude oil has stabilized,” Garrity said. “We are consuming winter blend at this point, and fewer people are out driving in general. Gasoline prices surely could be influencing people to drive more. Yes it is still relatively a little bit expensive, but it is stable enough.”
The Thanksgiving holiday will bring a little bit of precipitation in Butler County, according to Mike Kennedy, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh.
Beginning Wednesday night into Thursday morning, Kennedy said, there will be a low-pressure system moving into the region that will bring about a 70% chance of rain Thursday.
“The brunt of that will come Thanksgiving morning,” Kennedy said. “It’s all rain, but the snow will come later. It will change over to a rain and snow mix into Friday morning and then during the day it will be all snow. There will be no significant accumulation.”
For temperatures, Thanksgiving will bring a high of 40 degrees, but heading into Friday and the weekend, temperatures will be much lower, Kennedy said.
“For Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, it’s not going to get above freezing as the high temperature,” Kennedy said. “During that, the low temperatures will probably be in the teens. During that time, there will be a small chance for scattered snow, but we do not see any significant accumulation. There really won’t be much change after it gets below freezing.”
