With the Thanksgiving Holiday Season in full swing, mother nature is inserting herself into the mix, and is not being helpful. I got caught at O’Hare last night as storms made a mess out of Atlanta’s Hartsfield (Jackson) International Airport. These storms are moving up the eastern seaboard, making travel precarious with heavy rain and snow.

The storm that churned just off the East Coast could cause as much as four inches of snow in some areas. Other regions, prone to so-called “lake effect snow,” could get even more than that.

Students in several North Carolina counties were sent home early Tuesday because of snow and sleet, and weather forecasters said mountain areas could get heavier snowfall.

The National Weather Service predicted snow in the mountains of eastern Tennessee Tuesday morning and more snow later in the week could leave up to a foot of snow in the area by Friday. That includes stretches of Interstate 94 and the Indiana Toll Road. via Fox News

Your Thanksgiving and Christmas travel will be more expensive this year. Face the facts, the airline industry has reduced capacity and raised prices. The loss of the billions to subsidize your travel is now over, and if you want to travel to visit the family, you will have to pay for it.

Sensing that shift in the terrain, shrewd travelers, knowing precisely where they want to go during the holidays, booked early and snapped up good fares, according to online booking companies such as Travelocity, Expedia, Orbitz, Cheapfares and SideStep.

“People have been pretty savvy this year,” said Amy Ziff, spokeswoman for Travelocity. “We’ve seen record-breaking holiday weekends all year, and we use that as a precursor of what Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s will be. We’ve been predicting a busy season, so people have been booking very early.”

As fuel costs have increased and cash-strapped airlines have shrunk their schedules wherever possible to save money, fewer seats are available, Ziff said. To pay for fuel, she said, the airlines have increased fares, but even so, people are still buying. “This isn’t the best year for waiting until the last minute.”

Our family is having Thanksgiving the weekend before to save on travel costs. I think many other people will be looking at alternatives for the holidays.