Holiday Travelers Face Snow In Wisconsin

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Thousands hitting the road the day before Thanksgiving is an annual tradition Wisconsin State Patrol Trooper Tim Redman is used to seeing. But getting the first snow of the year on the same day is not."I just don't want to think about that," said Redman on the road Wednesday afternoon.

"If the roads get icy, I'm just hoping that the temperature will stay up high enough that once the snow hits the ground it will melt."Many other travelers were hoping for clear roads Wednesday.

"I've seen a few weather forecasts that are kind of frightening, but I'm sure they won't be bad," said John Francis, of Plymouth, Minn., who was traveling to Chicago."We've been doing this for 20 years, so we're used to it," said Bill Horbat of Indiana, who was traveling to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

But while many drivers feel confident in their own skills, motorists traveling on a holiday weekend in bad weather can be affected by the many cars around them."A lot of people forget that snow and ice are slippery.

You just have to slow down," Redman said. "You know you can break the speed limit. You can break traffic laws, but you can't break the law of physics.

"The fear from both the State Patrol and AAA is that drivers will do what they frequently do during the first snow and not remember how important driving slowly can be.

"Because we're all going to be relearning how to drive in that snow and slush and ice on very busy roadways," said Pam Moen of AAA."You're not going to make any better time by weaving through traffic and passing one or two cars.

Just hang back, watch your following distance, go with the flow and you'll get there safely," Redman said.Having snow for Thanksgiving in this area isn't very common.

According to the National Weather Service, in the last 56 years the area has seen an inch of snow on the ground for Thanksgiving 13 times.AAA Wisconsin said that nearly 7 million people are expected to travel by land or air in the five-state Great Lakes region this holiday.Nationally, AAA estimates nearly 39 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more during the holiday, up about 1.5 percent.Of those traveling in the Upper Midwest, 6.2 million will go by auto, while another 700,000 residents will travel by air, according to AAA officials.

Nationally, nearly 92 percent of travelers will travel by car this Thanksgiving, according to a recent survey from the U.S. Department of Transportation.