Winter 2015: It could be worse
WAYNESBURG – If you find yourself complaining about this winter’s weather conditions, reminders of Greene County winters past may just put this season into proper perspective. Looking back, it could be worse, much worse.
Anyone who grew up in Greene County during winter 1977 is not spinning tales when they talk about chunks of ice bigger than they were. School buses really did sport chains on the tires to transport students, and school cancellations and delays were virtually unheard of for these youngsters. That was, until the record setting cold, heavy snows and gusting winds of January and February 1977, which led to heating fuel and natural gas shortages and restrictions across the entire state.
Hard to imagine a shortage of natural gas these days when there is an abundance of gas from the Marcellus Shale and beneath it the untapped Utica Shale.
Our low temperature in early 2015 is minus 16, not counting wind chill factors. January 1977 also had a low temperature of minus 16 degrees. But, 2015 pales in comparison. Temperatures in January 1977 peaked above freezing only six days out of 31. Half of that month, it was below zero with an average low of 3.9 degrees for the month. Making it even colder, a wind chill factor of minus 50 degrees was recorded on Jan. 18, 1977.
It was a brutal first two weeks of January 1977 that closed West Greene School District due to heavy snows and gusting winds. Students across the commonwealth quickly learned about school closings and delays when late January and February brought the gas and heating oil shortages.
On a directive from then-Gov. Milton Shapp, all schools were closed for a week in late January due to the heating fuel problem. Plans were made by the Greene and Washington County Community Action Corp., along with the local Civil Defense and Red Cross, to evacuate persons who ran out of fuel oil and could not receive a new supply.
Later in February, West Greene School District was operating on a part-time basis for two weeks to conserve heating gas. Cafeterias in all West Greene schools were closed during these two weeks. When each reopened, only cold foods were served. That lasted for three weeks because the ovens were not allowed to be turned in an effort to conserve gas. Thermostats were cut to “maintenance levels” each night.
This was not by choice. Columbia Gas, the supplier in the district, set restrictions on the amount of gas that could be used. Anything used above its allotment of 173,000 cubic feet would result in West Greene School District paying $10 per cubic foot for the excess. That allotment had to last the district through mid-March.
Across the county, Carmichaels Area School District did not use natural gas heating, but it too was forced to close for a lack of heating oil. Other districts in the county that were supplied by Equitable Gas were asked to close for a period of time to conserve gas.
Businesses also were adversely affected. Icy conditions shut down Duquesne Light’s Warwick Mine and Buckeye Coal Co.’s Nemacolin Mine for a week. The Grumman Boat Factory, Greenway Manufacturing and Weyerhauser plants also saw closures.
Other businesses supplied by Equitable Gas were asked to operate on half-day schedules.
The roads were so bad in January 1977 that a seven-vehicle pileup took place on Route 88 near Greensboro.
The following winter 1978 was better, relatively speaking, with 20 inches of snow striking the county on back-to-back days and a total snowfall for January of 35 inches. The 20-inch days were the heaviest snow accumulation in such a short period for the county since the historic snowstorm of 1950 left Greene County with 32 inches of snow on the day after Thanksgiving.
At one point in winter 1978, there were 11 highways closed because of flooding and freezing across the county with some roads coated in thick ice after heavy rains were followed by 85 mph winds and plummeting temperatures. All of this combined to create power failures and drive the Monongahela River above flood stage.
Ten years later, in April 1987, what was called “the worst April snowstorm in nearly a century” dumped a foot of snow on Greene County. Obviously, a foot of snow isn’t much in relative terms but a month into spring it grabs attention.
When the 1980s rolled around, Greene County heard the phrase El Niño as the December 1982 high hit 77 degrees. At one point during winter 1982, as many as 4,000 homes throughout the county were without power when utility poles were knocked down by falling trees. In January 1983, one day temperatures dropped to minus 18, matching the 20th century low temperature set in January 1963.
In 1984, our vocabulary increased again with the introduction of the Siberian Express. Christmas Day 1984 was minus 12 degrees with a wind chill factor that fell between minus 50 and 70.
The following year, Greene County hit 17 degrees below zero with harsh wind chill numbers of minus 50 to 60 degrees and three cases of frost bite were reported at Greene County Memorial Hospital.
The 1990s arrived with rain and cold, coupled with a sudden thaw on New Years’ Day that created an ice jam between Clarksville and the Route 88 Bridge at Millsboro resulting in 50 runaway barges on the Monongahela River.
Snow totals in Greene County were nearly three feet in a single day in winter 1993. January 1996 paled in comparison with just 22 inches in one day.
Moving into the next century, in January 2004, more than half of the 22 patients seen that month at the Waynesburg hospital were there due to weather-related injuries from ice and snow.
It would be another six years before the county experienced its next blitz, a two-day storm in 2010 that left us with 22.1 inches of snow.
Winter 2015, so far, isn’t looking quite as bad now, is it?