Potential for snow squalls could make travel tricky around western Pennsylvania
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Rain showers are changing to snow, and the potential for snow squalls could make travel tricky.
Tuesday is a First Alert Weather Day with impacts on the evening commute and travel Monday night and Tuesday morning. Light rain showers have been mixing with flurries and as the colder air arrives, gradually changing over to some lake effect snow showers through the afternoon and evening.
Temperatures are slowly dropping from 40 down into the upper 20s by early Tuesday morning. Snow squalls will be possible in the I-80 corridor and into the Laurel Highlands, so be prepared for low visibility and difficulty traveling if you encounter these occasional heavier snow bands through Tuesday morning.
Winds will be gusty overnight with gusts up to 30 to 40 mph across the region. This will drop wind chills into the teens tonight and Tuesday morning.
Up north in Lawrence County, PennDOT said there are 23 trucks out. PennDOT said crews couldn't pre-treat the roads because the rain would have just washed off the brine. On Route 422 near I-79 in Portersville, KDKA-TV's Jennifer Borrasso reports roads are wet and there have been no reports of crashes yet.
"Whenever we had our morning call and were debating on pre-treating or not, I pretty much looked out the window from the office, which is right along Route 18, and I could still see the water was going on the side of the road. The roads were still really saturated," said Mike Horrell, PennDOT's Lawrence County manager.
Horrell said the brine washed off the road.
"If you would brine with that saturation, two things are going to happen," Horrell said. "It's either actually going to make your freezing temperature higher on the road and you are going to create a worse condition, or it's just a complete waste."
In Allegheny County, Public Works will deploy 22 salt trucks with plows when the snow begins to fall. Public Works says all 50 of its salt trucks have been thoroughly inspected, and the department has 12,859 tons of salt and 3,705 gallons of liquid calcium chloride in stock.
As for snow totals through later Tuesday, most of the Pittsburgh area will see around 1 to 2 inches with areas north up to 3 inches. The I-80 corridor is under a winter weather advisory for higher totals -- 2 to 3 inches and even up to 5 inches north of I-80. The Laurel Highlands and Westmoreland and Fayette ridges are under a winter storm warning and will see the highest totals of 3-plus inches with the highest elevations in the mountains of West Virginia and Maryland possibly getting up to a foot of snow through Tuesday night.
Warmer air and sunshine return Wednesday and we'll be back into the upper 40s by the time winter officially arrives Thursday. The Christmas holiday weekend looks mainly dry and mild with temperatures in the upper 40s and 50 possible on Christmas Day.