Western Pennsylvania’s first major snowfall of the season will hit Tuesday morning during rush hour and is expected to dump up to 5 inches in spots.
Bill Modzelewski, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Moon, said precipitation will likely begin around 1 or 2 a.m. The heaviest snow is expected from 5 to 9 a.m.
“It looks like it’s gonna impact the morning commute,” Modzelewski said Monday afternoon. “We’ll have some slippery roads. But it’s not going to be like what we had on Thanksgiving, where we had that black ice.”
For school closings and delays, see the online listing from TribLive news partner WTAE. Schools on two-hour delays include Allegheny Valley, Derry Area, Franklin Regional, Freeport Area, Greensburg-Salem, Hempfield, Highlands, Ligonier Valley, New Ken / Arnold, Penn-Trafford, Pittsburgh Public Schools, Plum, and Riverview.
The Pittsburgh area sits on the upper edge of a low-pressure system moving eastward, according to the weather service.
Though most parts of Allegheny and Westmoreland counties will see about 4 inches of snow, towns near the West Virginia border, including Morgantown, might just get rain.
During the storm’s peak, snow in Pittsburgh could fall at a rate of nearly an inch per hour. Meteorologists expect the snow to taper off around 1 or 2 p.m.
Lows Monday night will linger in the upper 20s, while the temperature Tuesday morning — the region’s snowiest period — will hover around 29 or 30 degrees.
The highs Tuesday will be between 34 and 36 degrees, with lows in the mid- to upper 20s. Farther north, lows will be in the lower 20s.
Areas along the ridge lines in the Appalachians may also see some mixed snow and freezing rain Tuesday, including eastern Westmoreland, Indiana and Fayette counties.
Snowy rush hour
Getting to work Tuesday morning could be tricky.
Officials from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and Pennsylvania Turnpike on Monday issued a joint statement asking drivers to avoid unnecessary travel.
By 1 p.m., crews were already pretreating stretches of the turnpike with salt, Marisa Orbanek, an agency spokeswoman, told TribLive.
“We’ve been preparing for winter weather all year long,” Orbanek said. “We just want to make sure we have people on the roads. We are ready to go.”
Transportation officials announced restrictions on Interstate 78, part of Interstate 81 near the New York border and parts of U.S. 22 near the New Jersey border.
Orbanek said other restrictions are anticipated in Northeastern Pennsylvania, but no travel restrictions are in place for Western Pennsylvania — yet, she added.
“We’re obviously monitoring,” Orbanek said. “And we can make decisions as we go.”
Drivers will likely experience slick roads and low visibility during the heaviest snowfall, meteorologists said.
Too few plows?
Pittsburgh’s Department of Public Works said it’s ready for the snow despite snowplow woes.
Between 55 and 60 trucks with plows are set to take to city roads Monday night, public works Director Chris Hornstein told reporters. About 60 employees will be working overnight.
“We aim to get everything opened up 24 hours after the last snow falls,” Hornstein said.
Officials called the city’s salt supply “fine” but did not elaborate. Additional salt was set to be delivered Monday afternoon to facilities near Moore Park in the city’s Brookline neighborhood.
The city likely needs 123 plow-equipped trucks to make it through this winter season, Pittsburgh Controller Rachael Heisler said in a recent report on the city fleet.
As of Monday, the city had 104 of those vehicles — and only 84 of them are available for service, Hornstein said.
“It’s the best that we have, so that’s what we’re going to do,” Hornstein said.
‘Fully prepared’
Allegheny County officials on Monday described public works crews as “fully prepared to handle the upcoming snowstorm.”
The county is planning to deploy 20 salt trucks equipped with plows when the snow begins overnight, county Public Works Director Stephen Shanley said.
Those salt trucks will continually treat county-maintained roads until the snow stops falling and roads are clear.
County crews, which tend to 357 miles of roadway, had nearly 10,000 tons of salt and more than 2,500 gallons of snow-melting, liquid calcium chloride on hand Monday.
Shanley called that “more than enough to handle this storm.”
That said, Shanley warned motorists of occasional slick spots because of the lag time for plow drivers to cover their routes and then restock with salt at a maintenance garage.
Megan Swift and Justin Vellucci are TribLive staff writers. Megan can be reached at mswift@triblive.com. Justin can be reached at jvellucci@triblive.com.
