Snow and heavy rain was on the menu Wednesday in the West, threatening to hamper Thanksgiving travel. Snow fell at 2 to 3 inches per hour Wednesday over parts of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. Yellowstone National Park received 2 to 5 inches of snow overnight, with as much as a foot in higher elevations. Rainfall was heavy over the Sierra Nevada foothills and valleys of northern California with street flooding early Wednesday in Sacramento. In Colorado, winds gusted to 80 mph west of Fort Collins. A 70 mph wind gust was reported southeast of Casper, Wyo. Heavy snow warnings remained in effect Wednesday over the Cascade Range in Washington state and Oregon, for the Siskiyou Mountains of Oregon and the Sierra Nevada in California and for high elevations of parts of Nevada, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Tropical storm warnings were discontinued along the Florida and Georgia coasts as tropical storm Keith, with 50 mph winds, moved east-northeast into the Atlantic Ocean on a track that could bring it near Bermuda in 36 hours. Much of the central and southern Plains had fair weather and temperatures in the 50s and low 60s. North Platte, Neb., reached 69 degrees Wednesday, a record high for the date. The previous high was 67 degrees set in 1902. Temperatures from the northern Plains to New England were in the 30s and 40s. Readings over much of the Intermountain region and Pacific Coast were in the 40s and 50s. Temperatures around the nation at 2 pm EST ranged from 28 degrees at Limestone, Maine, to 80 degrees at Key West, Fla. The low in the nation Wednesday morning was 3 degrees at Alamosa Colo. The forecast for Thanksgiving Day called for snow over the northern and central Intermountain region and the northern and central Rockies. Rain was expected across most of California and the Pacific Northwest. Much of the eastern half of the nation was expected to have mostly sunny skies. High temperatures were expected in the 20s and 30s over northern New England; in the 30s for the northern and central Rockies, North Dakota and eastern Montana; the 40s and 50s from the northern and central Pacific Coast across much of Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, the upper Mississippi Valley, the Great Lakes, the Ohio Valley, the central Appalachians, southern New England and the middle Atlantic Coast; in the 80s over south central and southeast Texas and southern parts of the Florida peninsula. Much of the remainder of the nation was expected to have high temperatures in the 60s or 70s.
