Winter brings another round

Sunday’s storm dropped between 6 to 8 inches of snow throughout most parts of the region, a surefire sign that winter has yet to run its course.

Totals reported throughout the area included 8 inches in Bear Creek Lakes, Penn Forest Township; 7 in Palmerton and 6 in Owl Creek Road in Summit Hill.

As a result, kids missed out on yet another day of school as CCTI, Jim Thorpe, Lehighton, Marian, Northern Lehigh, Northwestern Lehigh, Palmerton, Panther Valley, Pleasant Valley, St. Jerome Regional, St. John Neumann, Tamaqua and Weatherly are all closed today.

Despite the storm, travel conditions weren’t really all that bad, said Ron Young, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

“Most of the roads right now are wet,” Young said. “We had our full complement of crews out in our region before, during and after. As the day goes on, we may scale it back some, but will keep trucks out for the overnight because it will freeze, so everything that is wet will freeze.”

The storm started around 3 p.m. and ended between 2-3 this morning, according to Tom Kines, a senior meteorologist with AccuWeather.

Kines said it looks like 6-7 inches of snow were very common around the area, and expected that highs today will probably reach the mid-30s.

Tonight, however, will be a different story as temperatures are expected to take a nosedive down to close to 10 degrees, he said.

“From now on, at least the next several days, temperatures are going to get on the chilly side, not so much today,” Kines said. “I don’t think it’s going to be any huge disruptions, (but) black ice is going to be a concern.”

All the more reason Kines said it would be wise to get those sidewalks and driveways shoveled this afternoon.

“Go for it, because it will not be as easy once the sun goes down today and tomorrow for that matter,” he said. “It’s going to become icy, more chunks of ice than snow, so it will be definitely easier to move around.”

Kines said temperatures are expected to reach the mid-20s on Tuesday, but will again drop down to 10 in the evening, while Wednesday and Thursday will only see highs in the lower 20s.

“Certainly not very springlike; typically this time of year, we should be seeing temps up in the mid-40s for highs and nighttime lows in the low to mid 20s,” he said. “That’s what our daily high is going to be, so you can see how much below normal this air mass is.”

Kines said the cold is expected to ease up later in the week, as temperatures are expected to reach the 30s on Friday and Saturday.

“In general, the next several days are going to be dry,” he said. “The one system that we have to watch out for is the one that’s moving into the West Coast tomorrow that may affect our weather on Friday.”

Kines said depending on the path, it could “maybe give us a little bit of snow.”

“If it did affect us, it certainly wouldn’t be a big storm,” he said. “It may stay south as well; then we wouldn’t have to worry about any precipitation until later in the weekend.”

For those fed up with winter, there is a silver lining, as 2 a.m. Sunday marks daylight saving time.