Lynne and Chuck Jones started their Christmas holiday by spending all of Thursday at John Glenn Columbus International Airport.

The Cambridge couple's late morning flight to Chicago was canceled, and they were hoping to catch a Thursday evening flight, weather permitting.

The Jones were among 14,000 travelers scheduled to fly out of John Glenn airport on Thursday, the airport's busiest day of travel of the year.

An already hectic travel day was made far worse by a major Midwestern storm making its way to Ohio.

The National Weather Service issued a winter storm advisory for central, western and southwestern Ohio starting at 7 p.m. Thursday and lasting until 5 p.m. Friday. Up to 3 inches of snow was forecast, coupled with below-zero temperatures Friday morning and winds up to 45 miles an hour.

As of 3:30 Thursday afternoon, several flights, including about half the flights after 9 p.m., had been canceled out of John Glenn airport, and more were expected to fall as the day advanced and into tomorrow.

The Jones arrived at the airport about 9 a.m. Thursday, after spending the night in a Columbus hotel. They had planned to board a Southwestern flight to Chicago at 11:45 a.m. to visit their son, Clint, and his family, including the Jones' two grandchildren.

When that flight was canceled, they were rebooked on a 7:20 p.m. flight.

"Right now, we’re just parked on a bench, but we'll get some lunch eventually and walk around some," Lynne said shortly before noon Thursday. "All we can do is hope. We’re bummed, of course, but it is what it is. We’ll take whatever comes; that’s all you can do. There's no sense in getting upset."

Nick Levitt was happy to make it safely back to Columbus from Chicago on Thursday morning but said he's worried that his brother, Paul, and his wife, Michelle, might not have the same luck on their planned flight from Baltimore on Friday afternoon.

"It looks like Chicago will more or less shut down at noon today, so I just got out in time," said Levitt, 28, who was coming home to Grandview for Christmas.

"We work hard to see each other pretty often, but it's rare, just once a year, that the whole family is together in Ohio," Levitt said.

More than 1,800 flights had been canceled as of 1 p.m. Thursday within, in or out of the U.S., according to the tracking site FlightAware. That includes one-quarter of the U.S. flights scheduled to land at Chicago O’Hare on Thursday and about half of the U.S. flights bound for Chicago Midway.

The National Weather Service reported that temperatures across the central High Plains plummeted 50 degrees Fahrenheit in just a few hours Thursday. In much of the country, the Christmas weekend could be the coldest in decades.

The frigid air will move through the central United States to the east, with windchill advisories affecting about 135 million people over the coming days, weather service meteorologist Ashton Robinson Cook said Thursday.

Forecasters are expecting a bomb cyclone — when atmospheric pressure drops very quickly in a strong storm — to develop near the Great Lakes, which will increase winds and create blizzard conditions, Cook said.

Authorities say they're worried about the potential for power failures and warned people to take precautions to protect older and homeless people and livestock — and, if possible, to postpone travel.

"The Columbus Regional Airport Authority is dedicated to keeping the airport safe, open and operational," said spokesperson Sarah McQuaide. "When winter weather is in the forecast, our teams are working around the clock to track weather conditions, monitor the airfield and keep runways clear of snow and ice."

For those who must travel, the authority recommends:

• Check your flight's status up to departure, on your airline's website or app. Other sites, such as FlightAware and Fly Columbus, also include flight status, though airlines themselves may be faster.

• Arrive at least 90 minutes before departure for domestic flights and two hours for international flights.

• Sign up in advance at CLEAR to get through security quicker.

• Visit TSA.gov to see what can be brought through security.

• Download your airline’s mobile app to check in for your flight, and download a mobile boarding pass.

Information from The Associated Press is included in this report.

jweiker@dispatch.com

@JimWeiker

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus holiday travelers brace for winter storm