LAKE COUNTY, Ohio — If you’re one of the millions of Americans driving this Thanksgiving weekend, you’ll want to keep your eye on the forecast – especially in Northeast Ohio’s snow belt.
An incoming winter storm has been threatening to impact travel plans in the east of Cleveland.
Early Thursday afternoon, travelers driving along I-90 in Lake County said they were eager to celebrate the holiday.
“Just get together with families and spend some quality time with them,” said Gopi Kallam, who was driving with his family from Buffalo, New York to Cleveland.
Jim McMahon, who was taking a similar route, said, “A good dinner and getting close with family.”
Ahead of the good company and good food, many said they were thankful for relatively good driving conditions.
“It’s been raining a little bit of flurries, but not too bad. Not having too many people on the road, as well, I think, has helped,” said Riley Calicchia on her way from Rochester, New York, to Akron.
Drivers who are used to living or driving in the snow belt say they’re aware that road conditions can quickly change.
“We’ve had a lot of big Thanksgiving snows,” said Lois Houston, who lives in Perry.
McMahon added, “You get used to it as best you can and you just prepare for it - that’s all.”
Some said they cut their trips shorter or were prepared to extend their travels if the weather created delays.
“We’ll head back Sunday night or we’ll stay back a couple of days if the weather is not good,” Kallam said.
McMahon said, “We’ll come back later this afternoon or early this afternoon to avoid the snowstorm. It’s supposed to start tomorrow.”
Road crews have also been preparing in the days ahead of a predicted winter storm.
"If we know that it's going to start hitting really, really hard in Lake and Geauga Counties but not so much on the west side of Cuyahoga, we can shift crews to those areas to help keep the roadways as safe and passable as possible," ODOT spokesperson Amanda McFarland previously told News 5.
ODOT said it’s stockpiled 300,000 tons of salt and more than 250 snow plow drivers ready for the incoming weather.
Some travelers said they weren’t going to take any chances.
“I don’t want to drive through it,” McMahon laughed.
Calicchia said, “I have to work on Monday, so we’re going to keep an eye on it. I guess that would be a reason why we would head back a little bit earlier if it was to be bad on Sunday.”
The National Weather Service in Cleveland has issued a Winter Storm Watch for Lake and Ashtabula counties from late on Thanksgiving into Monday morning.
