Minnesota weather: Tranquil start to Thanksgiving week; more active nationwide this weekend

Monday's forecast: Highs just above freezing

Tuesday will be a sunnier with temps in the upper 30s

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - After a cold and very active week last week, we have earned a break ... and we're going to get it. While there will be some minor exceptions, a very benign weather pattern is setting up for much of Minnesota over the next few days with fairly quiet conditions nationally until late in the week.

Thanksgiving week outlook.

A break in the craziness could not have been better timed, coming into the Thanksgiving holiday. The moisture has been greatly appreciated, but now that we have managed at least a trace of precipitation almost every day this month, we deserve a break. Well, the timing couldn't be better for travelers as we enter what is typically the busiest week at U.S. airports. The big difference though post-pandemic is that travel is no longer just a "Wednesday and Sunday affair." Thanks to the work-from-home reality for a solid chunk of the workforce, the busiest traveling week has been spread out to now go from roughly Sunday to Sunday or so, as Kyle Potter from Thrifty Traveler tweeted early Monday:

Because of this, airlines may be able to better handle inclement weather than they did in years past, but clearly time will tell. The good news is that the weather pattern will be very quiet heading into Thanksgiving before a system develops and rolls across the east with mostly rain from Texas to New England ... with any and all snowfall likely to be isolated at best.

Here's how the next few days could unfold:

The bulk of any precipitation that falls nationally is likely to occur from late Thursday through early Saturday across the East Coast stretching from Texas up into New England. Most locations are not likely to spend longer than 24 hours with precipitation chances which will hopefully help keep weather-related delays to a minimum. However, parts of the Northeast may end up with off-and-on precipitation for 36 or so hours, so heftier travel delays are more likely, especially in the Megalopolis where high traffic volumes cause problems by themselves.

Here is a glimpse of the expected weather-related airport delays ... Keep in mind these are expected average delays over a few days' time, and individual timeframes could vary wildly: