Passengers at Washington area airports confronted long looping lines this morning as they joined a record throng of holiday travelers spurred on by a strong economy, the long weekends, declining gasoline prices and a gentler security atmosphere.
On the roads, it was wet but warm in the Washington area with warnings of windy conditions later in the day.
While the highways were crowded, congestion appeared to be somewhat relieved by commuters who chose not to commute today and the absence of mega-crashes during the rush hour.
On the rails, Amtrak was reporting no significant delays.
Across the country's midsection, brutal blizzards carrying a foot or more of snow stranded drivers on some interstates and slowed travel to a crawl.
The National Weather Service's map showed a wide swath of snow cover swooping down from Montana into Texas and then back up Arkansas, Illinois and into the Great Lakes and New England.
The closest snow to the Washington area was in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. No flakes were spotted in or around the Beltway.
The Weather Service forecast a below-freezing Christmas Eve here, with temperatures in the 20s, and a mostly sunny Christmas Day with a high of 31.
The AAA predicted that more than a million Washingtonians would leave the area beginning today.
"Thanksgiving was the first holiday where we were back at pre-9/11 numbers," said AAA spokesman Lon Anderson.
Christmas will exceed those figures and probably set an all-time record, he said. "We've got a booming economy. We haven't had any terrorist attacks. And it's natural three-day weekend, actually two of them."
Anderson noted that gasoline prices are 35 cents higher on average than they were last Christmas. But, at $1.83 per gallon, the prices "are a whole lot . . . below the $2.05 of last summer," he said.
Anderson's AAA colleague, John Townsend, stationed at Reagan National Airport, said he had "never seen anything like it. It's jam-packed. The lines reached to the doors this morning," he said, before they were reorganized into cheek-by-jowl loops.
Tom Sullivan of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority told the Associated Press that National's economy lot is full and travelers driving to the airport will have to use the garages for parking. He suggested that people use the Metro to get to the airport.
Security screening was reported going smoothly. Airport security screeners have been instructed not to touch women passengers between their breasts as part of new pat-down procedures for some passengers, the Transportation Security Administration said yesterday.
The agency said it is making a modification to its searching methods that began in September after more than 400 passengers -- mostly women -- formally complained that the experience was invasive, humiliating and akin to being molested.
On the nation's highways, the area hardest hit by snowfall appeared to be Interstate 64 in Indiana, where drifting snow blocked exits and kept motorists stranded.
The Associated Press quoted one driver, Ken Sabatini of Leawood, Kan., saying that there were cars and trucks bumper-to-bumper as far as he could see in both directions.
Indiana State Police closed the eastbound lanes of the interstate for about 30 miles east of the Illinois state line.
Authorities are seeking help from the Indiana National Guard and the American Red Cross to rescue the motorists. State troopers are urging travelers to stay in their cars.
The Appalachian region was bracing for the arrival of a frigid air mass. The National Weather Service issued a wind warning for western Maryland with gusts to 60 miles per hour today at higher elevations.
