District braces for winter’s first blast
The area could see its first major blast of winter today as a storm front moves into southwestern Pennsylvania. The National Weather Service in Pittsburgh has issued a winter storm warning for Fayette and Westmoreland counties that will remain in effect until early Saturday morning, when most of the accumulation is expected to be over.
Brad Rehak, a weather service meteorologist, said Fayette County can expect 4 to 6 inches by Saturday morning, while possibly 8 to 11 inches of snow will accumulate on the Laurel and Chestnut ridges.
Greene and Washington counties will not get hit as hard as Fayette, according to the weather service. These counties, under a winter weather advisory, will face rain changing over to snow this morning. The Friday snowfall will result in 2 to 3 inches of accumulation, the weather service forecasts.
By 4 a.m. Saturday, when the advisory ends, about 4 inches of snow could be on the hills and valleys of Greene and Washington counties, Rehak said.
Coincidentally, last year’s first snowstorm in the region hit on Dec. 5, when 5 inches fell, Rehak said.
The storm that will hit the area is the product of two developing storm systems, one traveling along the mid-Atlantic coast and the other through the Ohio River Valley. Rehak said the two weather systems will meet over the Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Maryland area.
As of Thursday evening, Rehak said, the storm was pretty far south, bringing a large amount of rain with it instead of snow because it had not met colder air. He said he expected the moisture and cold air to meet over southwestern Pennsylvania, turning the rain to snow.
Locally, state and municipal officials are preparing to keep area roads free of snow and ice.
Jim Means, supervisor in Wharton Township, one of the local municipalities generally hardest hit by winter weather, said road crews are ready for whatever Mother Nature might deliver.
“We’re ready. We have plenty of cinders, and the plows are on the trucks,” he said. “We’ll take it as it comes. We’re watching and waiting.”
PennDOT dispatchers in Uniontown and Greene County are continually monitoring the temperature and precipitation and waiting for the calls from either 911, residents or state officials telling them to dispatch their crews so they can clean up the highways and roads.
In Uniontown, salt trucks are prepared, as in Greene County where PennDOT dispatcher David Hawk said the trucks are waiting with full gas tanks, snowplows nearby and a spreader box full of salt and cinders.
“We’re prepared for everything we just might have,” said Hawk.
Hawk said it may take 45-minutes to get a PennDOT worker on the road to begin cleanup because they are not waiting on standby due to the expense of hourly wages. Greene County PennDOT is also a little short of manpower because several workers retired this year, Hawk said.
Despite these possible holdups, Greene County has around seven men for each of the two shifts stationed at five county locations: Waynesburg, Mount Morris, Paisley, Nuttle Hill and Graysville. Each location has five or more trucks.
“We do the best we can, but you can’t really figure out what Mother Nature is going to do,” said Hawk, noting that predictions from weather forecasts are not always accurate.
According to his observations, Hawk does not expect Greene County to get hit very hard. He said the storm is south of the county, but, if the wind shifts in the right direction, the snow may come with it. He predicts the storm to wreak the worst on Fayette and Westmoreland counties.
In case of Greene County roadways being covered with snow and ice, Hawk said PennDOT workers cleanup will be focused on Interstate-79 at first because it is a high-speed highway.
Hawk cautioned drivers to always be prepared during the wintertime, no matter what the storm predictions are.
“Dress for weather and it never hurts to carry flares and an emergency kit,” recommended Hawk. “And a cell phone is the best these days. With them people can call home or 911 in case of an emergency.”