Road Trip from Houston to New York in December

[csegura68]

I am thinking of doing a road trip from Houston to New York in late December. I am from California and not use to driving in extreme weather. Would this be a bad time to drive because of winter? Any other advise is welcomed!

Thanks!

[Southwest Dave]

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

There is no way of knowing what the weather will be doing so far in advance but if you can remain a little flexible and also allow enough time to do the trip so that if you did see extreme weather, you can simply delay the start or pull off the road for a few hours while the storm passes. Keep in mind that Interstates are a priority to keep clear and traffic on the move so that the country doesn't come to a standstill. Every day of the year people have to go about there daily lives and be able to get to work, the shops and take kids to school etc so it's not altogether a bad time to travel but you should be prepared for some disruption, 'just in case'. Who knows you might see settled weather all the way.

[DonnaR57]

Welcome to RTA!

Another thought: why not grab a paper map or road atlas, and outline several different possibilities for routes you can use? That way, if looking at the weather report before you leave, if you see bad weather churning up on along your first choice of route, you'll automatically have a second choice route planned. Keep that map or atlas with you as you travel, in case something brews while you're out driving.

This is actually what I did, about 15+ years ago, when I had to drive in late December from MO to CA. Like you, I wasn't used to extreme weather! We even had two possible dates of departure planned, and ended up taking the earlier one because a storm was supposed to drop snow the following day. Just illustrating my point: have alternatives, when you are going to travel in the winter months.


Donna