First day of spring expected to dish out cold soup
As New England braced for its fourth snowy maelstrom this month, meteorologists expected spring to dawn in a mess of snow and rain in this area.
Forecasters said Monday the spillover from a brewing nor’easter could mean a mix would start falling in our region early this morning, and predicted at least some snow would start accumulating by nightfall and continue into Wednesday.
“We’re still trying to figure out exactly how much snow we’re going to expect between (tonight) and into the day on Wednesday,” Lee Hendricks, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh, said late Monday morning.
State transportation officials “are currently monitoring the weather and ready to act when needed,” said Valerie Petersen, spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation’s District 12, which includes Washington County.
“In our Washington County office, we have more than 60 plow trucks that are able to go out and plow the roads. We have 11 mechanics, and we have six stockpiles strategically placed so that our crews can go get the salt and anti-skid they need and get back out on the roadways,” Petersen said.
Local weather forecasters were keeping their predictions Delphic.
Local NBC affiliate WPXI expected scattered light rain and snow today that would “turn to all snow” at night before “gradually end(ing) across the area Wednesday,” with a “couple of inches” of accumulation likely.
“However, there are many factors, including exact track and strength of the storm, that will impact the numbers,” meteorologist Scott Harbaugh added on the channel’s website.
Harbaugh also said on Twitter three different models projected snowfall that varied between 1.9 and 7.7 inches.
CBS-sponsored KDKA-TV’s daily forecast predicted “two to three inches possible in several locations” in the region by midday Wednesday.
Hendricks said forecasters have to rely on experience to sift through various prediction models to figure out “the best we can get” on what they expect to happen.
“We’re evaluating this right now as best we can,” he said.
This week’s round of winter weather – with another possible storm in the mix for the weekend – comes in a year that’s so far been both colder and hotter than normal.
“It’s been a bit of a flip-flop,” Hendricks said.
He called January “very cold.” February, he added, was “relatively mild,” with temperatures 7.7 degrees warmer than average. So far, March has been unusually cold, with temperatures that work out in aggregate to 4.6 degrees colder than average.
The Pittsburgh region barely had reason to notice the last few nor’easters, but Hendricks said the impact of storms blowing in from the East Coast can be challenging to predict.
Each new one doesn’t necessarily follow the same track as the last, and a shift as small as 100 miles to the east or west can mean “drastic implications” for the weather in a given spot, Hendricks added.
With these storms, “people should pay a little closer attention to the weather and forecasts because these things can change and there can be shifts,” he said.