Metro

Massive storm set to strike on busiest travel day of year

Winter Storm Boreas is bearing down on New York with the triple threat of driving rain, gusting winds and freezing temperatures just as millions of travelers plan to hit the road for Thanksgiving.

The storm is expected to smack the region late Tuesday and stick around all Wednesday — one of the busiest driving days of the year.

“The storm is going to start affecting us Tuesday afternoon, and it will be wet for the evening commute, and then the rain and wind will get heavier overnight into Wednesday,” Tom Kines, a meteorologist for AccuWeather, told The Post Monday afternoon.

“There are concerns that when it gets bad late Tuesday and early Wednesday, we could see wind gusts as high as 50 mph.”

Robert Sinclair, a spokesman for AAA in New York, said the wind and rain will make Wednesday a brutal day on the roads.

“In New York state, we’re anticipating 2.6 million people will be traveling, 90 percent of them by motor vehicle, so the weather will make road travel difficult to say the least,” he said.

If possible, Sinclair advised, people should get out of town Tuesday, before the storm — dubbed Boreas by The Weather Channel — reaches the tristate area.

“If they have that flexibility, that’s a good idea,” he said.

 

But ticket agents at Newark and La Guardia airports said Monday that they had seen no spike in people looking to rebook flights.

“I wasn’t worried about the weather. I had this trip planned for a while, but I guess I booked for the right day,” said Carol Dancer, 60, of Forked River, NJ, who was flying to Arizona Monday to see her son and daughter-in-law for the holiday.

The MTA announced that more city buses and trains will run over the long holiday weekend, including Black Friday, and that Metro-North and the LIRR would add trains to handle holiday crowds. Passengers should check the site http://www.mta.info for specifics.

There is also a chance of snow in the forecast for New York City and coastal New Jersey and Connecticut as the rain tapers off late Wednesday or early Thursday.

Those inland or farther north, however, could see a light dusting.

But the thermometer will plunge Thursday once the storm pushes through, with a new front of frosty air blowing in from the northwest, sending temperatures to 30 or below on Thanksgiving Day with wind gusts as high as 35 mph in the city.

The approaching storm is the same that brought a wintry mess to Oklahoma City and Dallas over the the weekend before making its way northeast.

Additional reporting by Priscilla DeGregory