Christmas eve travel testing patience, wallets

>>> on this christmas eve , as americans rush home for the holidays , the weather is threatening to complicate things. snow in the midwest and the south has prompted hundreds of flight cancellations. european flights in paris have turned into nightmares. all that on top of a new security measure which could impact your next screening at the airport. nbc's ron mott is live tonight in atlanta 's jackson airport. ron , good evening.

>> reporter: carl, good evening to you. the weather didn't cause a lot of havoc today for air travel , but tomorrow could be a much different story. for all of you flying over the holidays, expect to see something new at security checkpoints. thermoses are the latest items to draw special attention from the tsa. concern would be terrorists may try to hide explosives inside. as a result, insulated beverage containers could face additional screening.

>> it's just another hassle we have to deal with.

>> reporter: last christmas, a nigerian man failed to detonate a bomb hidden in his underwear.

>> this is a very good vehicle for an improvised explosive .

>> reporter: analyst michael sheehan cautions travelers not to read too much into this latest warning.

>> this happens every year but doesn't necessarily mean there's specific information regarding an attack against the united states .

>> reporter: all across the u.s., holiday travel is testing patience, driving skills and wallets. and a powerful winter storm dumped snow on minnesota and iowa. a system moving into the south and east. nationwide, gas prices have hit $3 a gallon, a christmas first.

>> it is a little insane. $3 tnt 26 for a gallon of gas.

>> reporter: today, most of the holiday rush appears already over , at least for now. light traffic in chicago.

>> plane ride was good. no real delays anywhere.

>> reporter: at the world's busiest airport in atlanta , smooth sailing through security, under ten minutes. it may not be smooth sailing for long. it's supposed to snow in atlanta tomorrow. already, delta airlines has canceled some 500 flights, about 300 of those set to take off from atlanta . carl?

>> ron mott in atlanta . ron , thanks for that.