My DH & DS are enroute to CA. and overnighting in Knoxville TN tonight..with plans to be Henryette Ok on Sat. night..looking at weather reports for the next 2 days looks really nasty..should they head out and go as far as they can and then ride out the storm? How bad are the advisories out that way? Is it going to be serious ice? They have flexible travel days..Any info please would be appreciated? I am a nervous wreck!

I'm stuck in the situation right now. Forecast is for teens all weekend, flights are cancelled, what a mess.

Weather tends to flow west to east, so if you wait in Knoxville, you might be in for a longer wait (plus mountain roads in Knoxville are an absolute nightmare in snow)

If you do head out, remember that ice is harder to handle than snow. En route motels will fill up quickly. Drive with a full tank of fuel.

Can you head down a more southerly route to bypass the weather instead?

The latest forecast seems to call for much of OK to be coated in an inch or more of ice. The prudent thing to do would be to stay put rather than head into the storm. The farther west they go, the more likely to run into bad driving conditions, full motels, and loss of electricity and getting marooned in place. In thw rost-affected areas, highways will be passable before local roads -- so if they get off the highway to go to a motel, they could get stuck there rather than staying where they are now, and waiting until the highway is good. IMHO, just not worth the risk, for the sake of saving a few hours driving time later on. If they just press on, then trying to go south of the mess makes sense.

Thought about telling them to head to Dallas but that looks really iffy also!What would be a good alternate rte? Any suggestions would be appreciated..I was hoping maybe they could at least make into Little Rock area..I have weather reports for all over the I-40 rte. and it seems rain is being predicted for awhile thru Nashville, into Memphis & even up to Fort Smith.I am knw they will leave early tomorrow a.m. just to make up some time, but i feel as you said enroute motels will be filled!

I20 through Dallas will pick up Amarillo which tends to have terrible winter ice.

I guess you could just take I20 until things get crummy, then head south to I10?

There are websites which post highway conditions, so maybe they can also check there.

Best of luck.

Little Rock won't see anything by tomorrow night. Fort Smith, iffy.

I'd book hotel room FIRM for Little Rock for tomorrow night, and then wait it out there.

I checked area hotels. Both LR and FR still to have motels available.

I live in Oklahoma and it is a mess and more is on the way. I don't know the nature of this trip, but if it were me, I would reschedule, or at the very least hole up in a warm hotel room well out of the ice zone (massive power outages predicted). It is 9 degrees right now and the wind chills are well below zero... Not a nice time to slide into a ditch. Sincerely hope your family stays safe. Okie

They are already on the road. No reason not to get as far as possible before hitting the storm, BUT guaranteed with a hotel room.

It seems like the persons are already on a roadtrip, so no reason to wait in Knoxville, where the storm won't hit in another 2-3 days.

Again, I would go to Little Rock. No doubt about this. That's 528 miles. Decent 8-9 hour drive. Get to hotel and settle in, way before the storm will get to LR.

I'm in Little Rock and it's balmy today with temps in the 60s. We're expecting heavy rain tomorrow and the next day, but definitely nothing frigid until Monday at the least and maybe not then. Please look at weatherunderground.com for specifics.

If your dh and ds want to stay in Little Rock I have two suggestions - in downtown within close walking distance of the Clinton Library is the Marriot Residence Inn, and in west Little Rock there's a very nice Embassy Suites (the corner rooms are the best). Good luck!

The other thing about Little Rock is that from there the two can choose to continue on I-40 or move down to I-30/20 on their route west, based on weather and road condition. South doesn't necessarily mean better road conditions.

I really appreciate all the info..my family left CT this morning and is almost to Knoxville now. Waiting for them to call & relay info to DH. He was aware there would could be some ice, but not the degree. I am going to suggest RK's Little Rock plan at this point as my DH will want to go as far as possible, maybe stay put on Sun. also, unless the storm moves faster than predicted! I can't believe they planned this trip for weeks and purposely took I-40 to avoid the Rockies & Denver! The alternate rte. would be I-20 but that looks just as bad. Thanks for well wishes!

disneynan - I was a truck driver for 2.5 years and have seem my share of snow- and ice-storms. The most dangerous one I was in was around Austin, TX!

But I didn't have to worry about motel as I slept in my cab.

Anyways, if one get stuck on the road without a hotel, a truck-stop would be the second best place. No shortage of fuel to keep car warm, 24-hour restaurant, pay-showers.

WOW..what a wkend this has been! My DH & DS left CT for Knxville TN on Fri. Early Sat. morning they headed for Little Rock, but the weather held & they decided to make a mad dash for Greenville TX instead(it only POURED the last 4 hrs)Looking at the radar I kept them informed of just how close to the ice line border they were. This morning they left heading for Deming NM., hitting bands of ice & sleet for a while all the way to Odessa..very slow going, passing lots of cars & trucks off the road in ditches & accidents. Slow & steady they go! I am amazed at the stories & pics on the news tonight showing the damage. Whats really funny is how I "convinced" DH to take the I-40 over the I-80/I-70 rte we usually go, for fear of "bad weather" in the mtns. passing up stays with family in OH & CO. We knew 40 can get iffy, so plans were for made I-20 alternate,so to have such a huge storm made for LOTS of excitment. I got a call after they left Odessa saying all the ice was melting & blowing off the car and it looks like clear sailing. We hope!

Did they have smooth sailing to CA?

I see there is another storm wave heading through this week. Arg

Turns out we surely did have quite an ice storm here in Missouri as well as elsewhere. Like most cities we lost power and after two nights huddled in front of our fireplace we relocated to a motel. Our backyard is a disaster zone with large branches down all over. How lucky we didn't suffer roof damage as some have.

It's a bit strange being in a motel yet not traveling on vacation. But we've gone to a movie, read some books, even played some games (nice room with heat but motel TV out and today the water line is busted). We will survive!

ozarksbill

As I read this thread I was thinking of the folks from Australia (or Europe?) who asked for the best cross-country route in the winter and were told I-10...and today 300 miles of that freeway is closed due to ice in Texas. This has been a weird year.

DH & DS finally had "clear sailing" & made it to Irvine on Mon. evening with beautiful blue skies for the rest of the trip! They called from Palm Springs at 4pm to report it would be a long slow drive the rest of the trip: heavy traffic. DH flies back TH. Its been a white-knuckle wkend!