Drivers brave the morning snow in Westmoreland County
DONEGAL, Pa. (KDKA) — They call it the gateway to the Laurel Highlands, but Friday, Donegal was the gateway to an early taste of winter.
"I slid down my driveway this morning, wasn't quite ready for it," Dale May of Donegal said.
"It's always a surprise when you get the first blizzard of the year," said Michael Reid, who's traveling from Michigan to the Philadelphia suburbs.
Reid said the snow snuck up on him.
"Woke up to this, now driving a snowmobile," Reid said.
On a day like Friday, the convenience store or gas station becomes the congregation spot.
"[I'm getting] something MTO and a drink because I just got done with work," Kelly Leazier of Ligonier said.
That's why Ethan Golden was at the Sheetz before work.
"I'm going up to Seven Springs," he said. "We're gonna go roof houses for a little bit."
Blacktop became a white snow blanket in parts.
"It was bare this morning, and the last hour, it got ugly," May said.
Because of the other ugliness, the people in the Laurel Highlands are preaching caution.
"Just go slow. Don't be tailgating anybody," Golden said.
Michael Reid, meanwhile, just wishes all of it would stop.
"We're missing the sun," he said.