Thanksgiving travel may be affected by rain, or wintry weather depending on where you're headed. Let's go west first. This is going to be the more treacherous route. Most of New Mexico is under either a Winter Storm Warning, or Winter Weather Advisory. There will be icy roads starting this evening from central New Mexico, into the northern part of the state. This will spread into the Texas panhandle, to just south of I-40 in Texas. The mix of snow, freezing rain, sleet and rain will cause road conditions deteriorate after sunset. If you are going west today, leave as early as you can. The Texas panhandle is going to see icy roads after sunset, as well. It will be colder here, so bridges, overpasses and most other roads will have ice on them by 4:00 tomorrow morning.
If you are headed east, it's looking much better. There will be more isolated rain showers from central Texas to the DFW area tonight. The rain for DFW will arrive near, or after midnight. Southeast toward Houston will see warmer air and some rain showers tonight. Winter weather will not affect these areas at all. There will just be wet roads by tomorrow morning. Far west Texas near El Paso will be chilly today. Rain will begin this evening and continue past midnight. El Paso to Las Cruces will not see any wintry precipitation as that situation will remain just rain.
Warm air is going to be the deciding factor to who sees wintry weather and who will just get rain. Locations off the Caprock will see warmer air, with temperatures remaining above freezing, so they will get liquid precipitation tonight, through noon tomorrow. As you move closer to Lubbock and northwest, that's when things will be interesting. Now for Lubbock, we are looking at a narrow window to see rain mix with freezing rain. That will generally be late tonight, through 4:00 tomorrow morning. Most of this activity will not affect most roadways. Bridges and overpasses will be slick before and just after sunrise Thanksgiving morning. Other wet roads may be slick as well. Just drive with caution if you're going anywhere before 9:00 tomorrow morning. There will be less of a warm layer across Parmer, Castro, Swisher, Bailey and Lamb Counties. That means more of a mix of rain, freezing rain, sleet and some snow. Snow accumulation will not be that high. However, some spots could see near an inch of snow, with a half inch of ice accumulation. Roads will be most slick north and northwest of Lubbock where the air will be much colder.
The computer forecast has been rather consistent over the last few days. It is showing mixed precipitation spreading down to Lubbock, Brownfield and Denver City late tonight. That is certainly possible. With ground temperatures higher here, icing is not as big of an issue as it will be to the northwest. With that said, there will still be some patchy icy spots early tomorrow morning. So drive safe if you're going to be headed out before 9:00 am. Friona, Dimmitt, Tulia and Muleshoe will see the worst of the winter weather with rain, snow, freezing rain and sleet possible. The air will be colder here so that is why all modes of winter precipitation will be possible. Areas of I-27 in Swisher County will be slick after sunset, through noon tomorrow. All of the precipitation will move out by noon-1:00 pm on Thanksgiving. We will be left with a cloudy afternoon and highs in the low 40s for Lubbock, mid and upper 30s to the north and northwest.