Winter Storm in Fayette Ridges, Pennsylvania

Around eight inches of snow fell in the ridges of Fayette County, with a specific total reported at Ohiopyle.

In the early morning hours of Sunday, January 16th, a powerful polar front jet dug a deep trough into the Middle Mississippi Valley and into the lower Appalachian Range. Here some phasing occurred with the southern subtropical jet providing ample moisture into the developing system. The surface low then deepened as it tracked northeast along the eastern side of the Appalachian Range. As the system strengthened and lifted north, the northern fringe of precipitation began over the Pittsburgh area by 4 PM. As the system intensified, the deformation banded heavy snowfall set up along the PA/OH border northeast into the northern PA counties, and west into OH. Here is where the heaviest snow fell with some locations getting more than a foot of snow. An area of mid and upper level drying set up at the foothills of the Laurel Ridges into Fayette, Westmoreland, Greene, Washington, Marion, and Monongalia Counties. Here is where the dry slot set up cutting into the snowfall amounts ranging from 3 to 6 inches due to periods of sleet and freezing rain. This feature impacted the counties west of I-79 as well, but the mid level drying eventually shifted east shortly after midnight on the 17th as heavier snowfall developed back over the western PA counties. The snow continued into Monday afternoon before dissipating in the lower elevations. Some topographic enhancement led to prolonged snowfall in the higher elevations of Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia into Monday evening.