On one of busiest travel days of the year, BWI passengers battle crowds, weather conditions

BALTIMORE - Ground crews at BWI Thurgood Marshall International airport are battling mother nature as airlines try to ensure flights will take off for passengers who are on pins and needles.

On one of the busiest travel days of the year, flyers are in limbo because they don't know if their flights will actually take off.

"My family is in shambles right now because I'm not coming home, they think I'm not coming home, so I'm hopeful that I'll be able to," said Blake Barbieri, who was traveling from BWI to Florida.

Cold weather has gripped the country from coast to coast. 

There were white-out conditions in Denver, wind and ice affected d Chicago's O'Hare airport, and sub-freezing temperatures gripped the East Coast. The extreme weather conditions are ruining travel plans.

"Again, my plans got canceled again," said Timothy Ampy, who was traveling from Baltimore to Alabama. "Yeah, this was the new flight; well, the second new flight after the first one got canceled, so I'm just hoping this one doesn't get canceled at this point."

Around noon on Friday, Flight Aware reported more than 3,700 flights were canceled nationwide, but the number kept going by the hundreds every couple of hours nationwide.

By 4 p.m., 109 flights had been canceled at BWI.

On top of thousands of cancelations, more than 6,000 flights were delayed.

AAA predicted this would be one of the busiest holiday travel seasons since they started keeping records in 2000.

In anticipation of terrible storms, some airlines started offering passengers the option to change their flights - without a fee earlier in the week.

But with demand high, and bone-chilling weather affecting millions of Americans, travelers are buckling up and hoping for the best.