Thanksgiving weather: Rain and snow may bring travel troubles to the Northeast

Rain is falling across the Northeast on Thursday morning, setting up what's bound to be a soggy Thanksgiving for dozens of states.

The forecast for both the New York and Philadelphia's Thanksgiving parades are on track for periods of rain and drizzle with temperatures in the 40s and a chilly breeze at 10-25 mph.

For most of the major cities along I-95 in the Northeast, this will be a rain storm, but wet snow will be mixing in farther inland.

Winter alerts are posted from northern Pennsylvania into Maine, with the potential for up to a foot of snow in the higher elevations today.

Timing it out

For cities like D.C., Philly, and NYC, this will mainly be a morning rain event, with some slow improvements expected by later today.

Rainfall should gradually taper off by mid-day in the Mid-Atlantic, with Philadelphia likely seeing it end by around noon.

New York City may hold on to the rain until around 2 p.m., while Boston sees an end to the rain closer to sunset around 5 p.m.

Parts of northern New England, especially Maine, will be seeing rain and snow into the overnight hours before conditions improve.

After this storm moves out, the coldest air of the season will be filling in across much of the country.

Due to that cold air passing over the relatively warm water of the Great Lakes, there are numerous Lake Effect Snow Warnings and Winter Storm Watches in effect. This is looking like the first significant Lake Effect Snow event of the season.

The forecast calls for 3 to 4 feet of snow through Monday for portions of western New York State.

The heaviest snow bands likely stay south of Buffalo, but things may get interesting at Sunday night's 49ers/Bills game with snow nearby.

For the rest of the country, the weather stays mainly quiet this weekend, but it's a chilly forecast for dozens of states in the eastern half of the country as temperatures start to feel much more in line with the incoming winter season.

In the west, warmer than normal temperatures are expected as we head through the first week of December.