The national weather forecast map for Tuesday Nov. 25, 2025, shows a big storm in the eastern U.S. Snow is likely around the Great Lakes, while severe storms could rattle the South.

A day after a tornado smashed through the Houston area, Southerners were on guard for more severe weather just as travel ramps up for the Thanksgiving holiday.

According to a forecast Tuesday, Nov. 25, from the Storm Prediction Center, isolated severe storms were possible across parts of the Southeast and Deep South through the early evening. "A couple tornadoes are possible in parts of eastern Mississippi and central Alabama," the center said in an online forecast.

The severe weather is part of a sprawling storm expected to spread travel havoc into Wednesday, Nov. 26, the busiest travel day of the year.

"Widespread travel delays will mount across the United States in the days leading up to Thanksgiving with severe storms, thick fog, flooding rain and even a blizzard in the forecast across the country," said AccuWeather meteorologist Alex Sosnowski in an online forecast.

A record-setting 82 million people are expected to travel 50 miles or more from home for the Thanksgiving holiday this year, according to the American Automobile Association.

Stormy South, East

Heavy and locally severe thunderstorms were likely from eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina to the southern parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, as well as the western part of the Florida Panhandle, Sosnowski said. "As the line of storms advances, it will lead to disruptive downpours in the Interstate-85 corridor and may result in ground stops at area airports, including Atlanta and New Orleans."

Later today (Nov. 25), as the system advances toward the East Coast, a period of enhanced rainfall can be expected to move through the central Appalachians followed by the interior Mid-Atlantic this evening, the National Weather Service said. The rain will then move across New England through tonight.

Winter storm alerts

Although some light snow was falling in the northern Plains on Tuesday, moderate to heavy snow will overspread the upper Great Lakes on Wednesday, Nov. 26, while rain across the remainder of the Great Lakes will change over to snow from west to east from Wednesday night into Thanksgiving morning on the back side of an expanding low-pressure system, the National Weather Service said.

Winter storm alerts were in effect in several northern states, including a winter storm warning for Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan.

Snowfall amounts will progressively increase from west to east across the northern Plains, with totals of more than a foot likely downwind from the snow belt of Lake Superior, the weather service said.

"As the storm in the north-central tier continues into the middle of the week, substantial blowing and drifting snow is forecast in portions of Minnesota and northern Michigan, with an all-out blizzard developing in the vicinity of Lake Superior," AccuWeather meteorologist Brandon Buckingham said.

Northwest storm

Also late Tuesday, yet another storm system may bring rain and mountain snow to Washington and Oregon, then into northern Idaho and far western Montana, Weather.com meteorologist Sara Tonks predicted.

“The Pacific Northwest could face some of the most severe impacts from the weather in the days leading up to Thanksgiving,” said AccuWeather meteorologist Reneé Duff. The result will be slowed travel and the possibility of flooded roads.

Thanksgiving Day weather

For the holiday, lake-effect snow is likely to develop downwind of the Great Lakes. “Those traveling on Thanksgiving Day around the Great Lakes region may have to contend with typical lake-effect snow showers, which can result in reduced visibility and slippery travel,” Duff said.

For the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in New York City, the forecast called clear skies, gusty winds and temperatures in the 40s, the National Weather Service in New York City said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Watch out for snow? Thanksgiving forecast warns of bad weather.

Reporting by Doyle Rice, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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