Several more nuisance snows expected this week
Those in the region who shoveled themselves out Sunday in time for the Super Bowl may want to rest up.
Several more nuisance storms spread out over the next few days are expected to produce similar outcomes.
Tom Kines, a senior meteorologist with AccuWeather, said there’s the potential for three days of winter precipitation.
Kines said the first one, for which we could be on the northern fringes of the snow, is expected Tuesday night that could result in a coating to an inch of snow.
The second storm, he said, could arrive late Wednesday or Wednesday evening perhaps into Thursday and could lead to frozen precipitation and accumulate, perhaps an inch or so, before moving over to freezing rain and then rain.
“None of these storms are going to shut the town down, but I think they are going to cause some slippery travel conditions. It’s certainly something to watch out for, primarily tomorrow evening, maybe Wednesday morning,” Kines said. “And then with that second storm, by the Wednesday evening commute it could also be an issue with some snow or sleet or freezing rain.”
Once we get past Thursday, Kines said there is a bit of a reprieve as Friday looks to be a nice day with lots of sunshine and temperatures in the mid 30s.
Yet another storm to deal with could arrive on Saturday, Kines said.
“Still lot of question marks,” he said. “It looks like it will give us a variety of precipitation (in the form of), snow, ice or rain.”
Kines said this year’s winter weather pattern is unique when compared to recent winters in the Lehigh Valley.
“It’s been a few winters since we’ve had a prolonged pattern like this,” he said. “Sometimes it’s the luck of the draw; I don’t think there’s anything scientific right now that can explain it.”
For those who are likely frustrated with the current weather pattern, Kines urged them to hang in there, be patient, and let Mother Nature do her thing.
“Sometimes we don’t like it, but for those people that are getting tired of the snowy weather, we’ve been living the good life (these past few winters),” he said. “These things tend to even out, and it’s evening out this winter.”
Despite all the nuisance snows we’ve had, there appears to be no real shortage in supplies.
PennDOT District 5, which is comprised of Carbon, Monroe, Schuylkill, Northampton, Lehigh and Berks counties, has used about 49,000 tons of salt so far this winter and heading into this past weekend, had over 68,000 tons of salt on hand, according to Ron Young, PennDOT spokesperson.
“The 68,000 tons is enough to treat numerous winter storms,” Young said. “Last winter District 5 used 45,484 tons of salt.”