Storms Heading East: Thousands of Flights Canceled and Delayed Across the U.S.

As a series of storms are heading east, thousands of flights have been cancelled of delayed across the country.

Torrential rain, lightning and high winds are causing a travel headache for thousands across the country as the storm turns into a strong nor'easter. The storm was predicted to become a "derecho" storm, a powerful thunderstorm with winds up to 100 mph. That prediction is not likely at this point, but it is still causing problems. The storm forced the U.S. Open to be postponed as the Merion course has received more than 6.5 inches of rain in the past week.

However the storm is also causing problems for travelers. More than 900 flights were cancelled and 7,400 delayed, according to flight-tracking service FlightStats. Not every affected flight is related to the East Coast storms, but many of the delays and cancellations are at airport that are in the path of the storms.

Delays were reported at eight of the country's biggest airports by Thursday afternoon. The worst of the delays average about three hours, according to the Federal Aviation Administration's flight delay map.

The longest delays were reported at Newark Liberty, New York LaGuardia, Washington Reagan National, Washington Dulles and Philadelphia but flights to and from JFK in New York, Atlanta and Baltimore/Washington were also having big problems. Almost every major airline in the U.S. has a hub that operates on one of the airports that reported delays.

As of 8:15 p.m. ET, more than 1,200 flights in the U.S. were cancelled and more than 9,690 were delayed. The hardest hit airport for arrivals was Chicago O'Hare with 110 cancellations and 542 delays. The most affected airport for departures was Philadelphia International Airport with 97 cancellations and 336 delays. ExpressJet was the most affected airline with 246 cancellations and 806 delays.