Across the U.S., snow and winds slow after tangling traffic and threatening parade

Wintry weather temporarily loosened its grip across much of the U.S. just in time for Thanksgiving, after tangling holiday travelers in wind, ice and snow and before more major storms descend Friday.

There were some exceptions to the respite, particularly involving Interstate 5 in California, which was shut down early Thursday as heavy snow softly blanketed the region.

But high winds that on Wednesday had ripped a wooden sign from scaffolding on Chicago’s Willis Tower and nearly felled a Christmas tree to close Cleveland’s Public Square were calm enough by Thursday morning to allow the Macy’s Day Parade in New York to proceed, albeit with balloons flying at lower levels.

The National Weather Service predicted things could get dicey — if not impassable — for holiday travelers’ trips home. Forecasters warned against travel Friday night through Saturday night in a stretch of country form northeast Wyoming to northwest South Dakota due to expected blizzard conditions.

The next storm system is expected to drop up to 2 feet of additional snow from the Sierra Nevada to the central and northern Rockies as it rolls across a large swath of the western and central United States.

Long stretches of two interstate highways in northern Arizona’s high country also were expected to be closed between late Thursday and early Friday because of expected heavy snowfall.

In Ohio, crews had restored power to about 90% of those affected by power outages Wednesday caused by high winds. At peak, 42,000 customers in central Ohio and 39,000 in northeast Ohio were without electricity.