A WINTRY START TO FEBRUARY
Above: Sandwich Way, Norton Street, Southern Avenue and Gray Street in Mount Washington after the city was blanketed in up to 7 inches of snow on Monday. The National Weather Service’s winter weather advisory for the Pittsburgh area expired Monday as the storm passed through. Read more regional coverage of the storm inside.
With just over 6 inches of snow in much of the region, southwestern Pennsylvania avoided the brunt of a winter storm that was so severe in other parts of the state that the governor declared a disaster emergency.
Though the declaration is for the entire state, it is mainly focused on the central and eastern regions, where high winds and heavy snowfall were still in the forecast for Tuesday.
“We are in the middle of one of the most impactful statewide storms we’ve had in a long time,” Melissa Batula, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s deputy secretary for highway administration, said Monday. “This is truly an all-hands-on-deck situation, and our crews are working hard to keep roads safe and passable.”
The storm prompted Gov. Tom Wolf to reschedule his annual budget address, which traditionally is given on the first Tuesday of February. The address now is planned for Wednesday.
The governor’s declaration means the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency has assumed command and control of state emergency operations to “utilize all available resources and personnel as is deemed necessary,” the declaration said.
As part of the declaration, Mr. Wolf transferred $2 million to PEMA for emergency-related expenses.
By Monday evening, parts of Philadelphia had received over 7 inches of snow, with more — between 4 and 8 inches — to come. The eastern part of the state was under a winter storm warning until 4 p.m. Tuesday. Wind gusts up to 40 mph were expected along with the snow, according to the warning.
The Harrisburg region also was expected to receive several more inches of snow before the end of the storm, leaving some areas with up to a foot.
Due to the continuation of the storm, PennDOT placed what are called Tier 1 restrictions on highways in Central and Eastern Pennsylvania. Such restrictions mean tractortrailers, passenger vehicles towing trailers, recreational vehicles, school buses and motorcycles can’t use the roadways.
And the Pennsylvania Turnpike banned commercial vehicles from Lehigh Valley (Exit
56) to Clarks Summit (Exit 131).
PennDOT also asked motorists to postpone any unnecessary trips.
“We are particularly concerned with shipment and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines, so we appreciate citizens who are taking this storm seriously and staying off the roads because fewer vehicles means fewer incidents that could delay those operations,” PEMA Director Randy Padfield said in a statement Monday night.
The same storm system dropped nearly 13 inches of snow on New York City, with 3 to 5 more inches expected into Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.
With just over 6 inches of snow in much of southwestern Pennsylvania, the
Pittsburgh region got off easy. The region had been under a winter weather advisory until 4:30 p.m. Monday, although another inch or two of snow was expected into Tuesday morning in some areas.
This is the third major storm that the region has experienced so far this winter.
In mid-December, up to 16 inches of snow was recorded in some places, and on Christmas Day another storm dropped 5.1 inches over the course of a few hours.
That storm broke a Christmas Day record of 3.5 inches, set in 1935.
Because this storm, which began Sunday morning, had a slower accumulation rate, road clearing was made a bit easier, according to the Allegheny County Department of Public Works.
One weather-related accident in the area involved a Pittsburgh Public Works salt truck that slid over a hillside on the South Side Slopes/Knoxville border Monday morning. The driver was uninjured.
Snow accumulation in the region this winter already has surpassed the total for all of 2019-2020.
From November 2019 to April 2020 — the unofficial snow season in Pittsburgh — only 22.4 inches fell at the weather service office in Moon.
Just halfway through that time frame in 20202021, 33.2 inches have been recorded.
Winter officially ends March 20, but Pittsburgh has been known to get snow well into April and an occasional flurry in May.