Wet, slushy weather splashed into the area Tuesday after a
winter weather advisory seemed to fall slightly short of its
forecast.
The National Weather Service in State College was calling for a
mix of rain and snow with an accumulation of two to three inches in
the grass and six to 12 inches in the upper elevations for
Tuesday.
However, Meteorologist Jeff Warner said Tuesday afternoon the
latest
reports from the Weather Service indicate the mountain tops in
this region received at least 6 inches of snow, though there may
not be much snow in the valleys, including Bradford.
“The whole storm was highly elevation dependent,”Warner said.
“In most cases, over 1,500 feet or so. In Southcentral
Pennsylvania, they received as much as 10 inches of snow, which is
all very high elevation. It had to be high enough and cold enough
to fall as mostly snow.”
Warner said at Bradford Regional Airport, a handful of miles
from the city, it was “all snow until about just before 2 o’clock
before it changed to rain.”
The meteorologist said that just a small elevation difference
will determine whether it’s rain or snow.
“If you were to get in a plane, you wouldn’t have to go up very
far before you hit snow,” he said.
Along those lines, Ridgway-based state police reported Tuesday
afternoon the roads were pretty good in Elk County, and the
Pennsylvania Department of Transportation seems to have road
conditions under control
for the moment.
“Well, the first thing as a problem are people aren’t slowing
down
yet,” PennDOT’s McKean/Elk County Maintenance Manager Patricia
Shinaberger said about road conditions. “They aren’t used to paying
attention to the roads yet, and so we had a few accidents this
morning. But we’re on top of the storm, and everything is taken
care of. All the roads are open.”
For his part, one Kane-based state police trooper said “It
wasn’t as bad as they were calling for. There’s just a dusting out
now. It’s more wet than anything. If it were two degrees colder, we
might have been in trouble.”
There were three weather-related accidents on Tuesday reported
by Kane-based state police.
One accident occurred at 7:50 a.m. Tuesday on Route 59, about
six miles west of Smethport in Lafayette Township.
According to state police, a truck driven by Brent Douglas
Morgan, 23, of Sugar Grove, was traveling east on Route 59. The
truck went out of control on the snow-covered road and started to
spin clockwise. The truck then slid off the south side of the road
and rolled over one time. The truck came to rest on its tires.
A passenger, Ryan D. Edwards, 21, of Warren, had minor injuries
but required no medical treatment, according to police.
Police said the truck had moderate damage.
Two other accidents occurred in about the same location either
simultaneously or within one or two minutes of each other.
According to state police, the accidents both occurred at 7:39
a.m. Tuesday on Route 646 in Keating Township near each other.
In the first crash, a car driven by Ronald Thompson of 73
Rutherford Run in Bradford was eastbound on Route 646 when it went
out of control on the slippery road at the crest of a hill. The car
then turned in a clockwise manner, left the south berm of the
roadway and hit a utility pole with its left front.
At the same time, a car driven by Andrew Kloss of 1426 Droney
Road of Gifford was eastbound on Route 646 when it went out of
control in the slush on the road. The car then veered off the south
berm and hit a utility pole with its right front.
Police said neither Thompson nor Kloss were injured. Kloss’s car
had major damage, and Thompson’s car had moderate damage.
Police were assisted at the scene by the Hilltop Volunteer Fire
Department in both cases.
Also, around 6 p.m., there were reports of a power outage in
Smethport Borough and Keating Township.
The power was out for a few minutes, came on again for a few
minutes, and then went out again. A short while later, the power
came back on again. While the power was out, the Smethport Borough
Fire Police were directing traffic at the traffic lights in
Smethport.
Warner said the weather is varying across the state depending on
the elevation. He said in State College there’s been all snow since
10 a.m.
“There’s a big zone across the state with the heaviest parts in
the northwest and western part of the state,” Warner said. “The
heavier the
precipitation, the better action and energy it has, and this is
more likely to fall as snow.”
Warner said as the precipitation falls harder, it has a tendency
to rise more, cooling the precipitation to snow.
More snow and rain is in the forecast for today for the Bradford
area.
