Christmas travel looks good on East Coast, iffy in Midwest

• Big Western storm may cause some travel issues
• AAA says road travel expected to be up 1.6% over last year
• Salt Lake City probably will be the only major airport affected by storm in West

A big storm in the West may make getting home tough for some last-minute Christmas travelers, but decent weather elsewhere should keep most of the nation's roads and airports flowing smoothly.

"Overall, for travel on Christmas Eve, it's not that bad," says Dan Pydynowski, senior meteorologist at AccuWeather, a forecasting firm. "Monday is pretty quiet. Tuesday a little more active."

AAA, an organization that represents travelers, predicts 93.3 million people will travel more than 50 miles this holiday season, from Saturday through New Year's Day. That's a 1.6% increase from last year.

Christmas is the third-busiest holiday for travelers, after Memorial Day and Thanksgiving, and about 90% of travelers drive, AAA's Yolanda Cade says. It's not clear whether good weather causes more people to hit the road during the holiday season, she says, but it does free them from AAA's advice to leave earlier or later to dodge bad weather.

Snow will fall many traditional places through Christmas, including the Northeast and Great Lakes region, but it will be light enough to ensure a white Christmas without causing travel chaos.

"Other than a few trouble spots, there are no major snowmakers and, even in areas where it may snow, it may not accumulate much or will be mixed with rain," Pydynowski says.

The biggest threat is a Pacific storm that drenched San Francisco and Northern California early Sunday and will push large amounts of snow over the Rockies and beyond over the next few days. Expect tough going on Interstate 80 through Sierra Nevada passes from the storm nicknamed Euclid by The Weather Channel.

Salt Lake City probably will be the only major airport affected by the storm on the day before Christmas, Pydynowski says. The Denver airport won't feel the storm until late Christmas Eve when some late-departing flights may be scheduled.

Snow is also expected to fall late Monday afternoon and evening in Ohio, western Pennsylvania and Upstate New York. This fast-moving snowstorm will leave a few inches of snow over New England on Christmas Day before moving out to the ocean.

The holiday's worst weather is expected Christmas Day.

Euclid will push bad weather as far east as Oklahoma and Texas. Both Oklahoma City and Dallas may get a rare white Christmas, or possibly dangerous freezing rain.

These areas will also experience fast-falling temperatures -- from 70 degrees Sunday in Dallas into the 20s on Christmas night.

The Seattle area is another place that may get a rare touch of snow for Christmas. For the most part, though, the Christmas snow cover is where you'd expect it -- not a lot more or less. "This is a pretty typical Christmas," Pydynowski says.

The biggest weather threat on Christmas Day is from a Gulf Coast storm that will create severe thunderstorms in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Large hail or tornadoes are possible, the National Weather Service says.