Gusty winds cause scattered power outages
Blowing snow, gusty winds, icy sidewalks and lower temperatures hit the area early Thursday and caused some widespread minor damage and power outages in several communities. At first glance it appeared the calendar had advanced quickly to December, as overnight rains turned to snow flurries that lasted throughout the day.
According to National Weather Service meteorologist Terry Parrish, a strong storm center moving through the Great Lakes created the high winds, dropping temperatures and snow showers in the area.
Municipal and state workers throughout the day responded to downed trees that closed roads throughout the county, according to a Fayette County 911 supervisor.
“They were very minor incidents and scattered throughout the area,” he said. “There was no particular area that was affected by the storm.”
By late afternoon, the center was fielding telephone calls reporting that Route 40 had some icy patches in the Markleysburg and Farmington areas.
While the precipitation that hit the area was minimal, the winds were not.
After a more than 40-foot tree fell in the yard of Anthony Miller’s Mayflower Drive, South Union Township, home, he and his wife, Theresa, knew the winds were bad.
Theresa Miller said the tree fell “quietly and slowly,” for she heard nothing but howling wind throughout the night. When she awoke around 9 a.m. Thursday, she noticed the downed tree in the yard as she peered through a bedroom window.
“Uh, oh,'” she remembered telling her husband. “‘It looks like we lost a tree.'”
“We were pretty lucky,” she added. “It fell down on an angle instead of straight landing on our driveway. A little bit is on our driveway, but we can still get out. …We live at the foot of the mountain so we’re always getting wind.”
The storm also left residents throughout the region in the dark, as Allegheny Power crews scrambled to restore power.
As of 9:30 p.m. Thursday, power was restored to 700 of the company’s Fayette County customers who reported outages, said Janice D. Lantz, Allegheny Energy Supply’s manager of communications.
Downed power lines resulted from high winds and tossed tree limbs, said Lantz. She said most of the downed power lines were in and around the Connellsville area, while only 50 customers were affected in Uniontown.
“Fayette County was pretty lucky in all of this,” said Lantz. “We restored services to every customer who reported an outage, which was a low number in itself.”
In Greene County, crews had restored power to 100 of the 3,000 customers who were without power, and all but 100 of the 7,000 customers who lost power in Washington County had electrical service Thursday evening.
Lantz said statewide 50,000 people were without power, while about 100,000 customers reported power outages in Allegheny Power’s five-state service area.
Lantz said the company expected to restore power to all the customers this morning or this afternoon.
“Crews have been busy and they will keep working until everyone is back in service,” she said.
Parrish said the storm center and the associated winds that caused Thursday’s weather problems were expected to move out of the area this morning, with some lingering snow showers.
“As the storm center moves toward the New England states, we should see some partly sunny skies and the temperatures in the mid-30s,” he said.
The weekend weather calls for a continuation of sunshine during the daylight hours, with temperatures hovering in the 40s, he added.
“It’s going to get better,” said Parrish, adding that for the next several weeks the area will see milder temperatures. “Unfortunately, we’re not going to see any more of the 70-degree weather we experienced last week. …Instead, we’ll see 60s and then 50s as we head into December.”
Parrish said the area will experience similar conditions, with mild days being replaced by shifting weather over the next several weeks.
“It’s called a transition period,” he said. “Eventually the lows will get lower as we settle into winter.”