Blizzard — Northern Erie, Pennsylvania

2022-12-23 to 2022-12-24 · Northern Erie, Pennsylvania

Event narrative

An Arctic cold front swept through the area around 4 AM December 23rd. Low pressure along this front tracked over Lake Erie early in the morning on December 23rd and rapidly intensified through the day while slowly lifting northeast across Ontario. With the frontal passage rain changed to snow with temperatures dropping from the upper 30s and lower 40s to sub-zero in about 8 hours. A period of moderate to heavy snow, with snow rates up to 1' per hour observed, occurring during the morning and midday hours December 23rd. The period of snow and rapidly falling temperatures led to a flash freeze and icy conditions on area roadways. While the falling snow became lighter through the afternoon hours of December 23rd, winds began increasing during the pre-dawn hours and gusted over 45 MPH through the day. A peak gust of 55 MPH was measured at 1:31 PM December 23rd at Erie International Airport. Scattered tree damage and power outages resulted. Wind gusts very gradually subsided into December 24th, though gusts didn't drop below 30 MPH until that evening. This led to a prolonged period of widespread blowing and drifting snow beginning early in the morning December 23rd and continuing through the afternoon and evening, with some patchy blowing and drifting snow continuing all the way through Christmas Eve. At Erie International Airport, the visibility was consistently at or below one-quarter of a mile in falling and/or blowing snow from 7:35 AM through 5:10 PM December 23rd. Wind gusts were consistently over 35 MPH through this period, meaning blizzard conditions were observed. The greatest impact from this storm was to travel due to the flash freeze and extensive blowing and drifting snow, to go along with low visibility. Numerous minor accidents, slide-offs and disabled vehicles were reported throughout the area on December 23rd and 24th. All flights out of the Erie International Airport were canceled December 23rd. Wind chills plunged below 0 around 8 AM December 23rd and did not warm above 0 until midday December 26th. A minimum wind chill of -30 degrees was reported at 2:51 PM December 23rd at Erie International Airport. Warming centers were opened in Erie and Mill Village in response to these conditions. A number of burst pipes were reported across Northwest Pennsylvania due to this cold, with temperatures remaining in the single digits until Christmas morning. A trained spotter in Lake City reported 3.2' of snow with this storm. 3.0' of snow was measured at Erie International Airport. Some light lake effect snow lingered into Christmas morning behind the storm.

Wider weather episode

A long-duration, multi-faceted winter storm hit northwestern Pennsylvania just before Christmas 2022 with extreme cold, strong winds, accumulating snow and extensive blowing and drifting of the snow that fell. An Arctic cold front swept east across northwestern Pennsylvania during the early morning hours of December 23rd. Low pressure along this front tracked over Lake Erie early in the morning on December 23rd and rapidly intensified through the day while slowly lifting northeast across Ontario. With the frontal passage rain changed to snow with temperatures dropping from the upper 30s and lower 40s to sub-zero in about 8 hours. The snow was generally light to moderate, but a brief period of heavier snow with rates of around one inch per hour lifted through during the morning hours December 23rd. The period of snow and rapidly falling temperatures led to a flash freeze and icy conditions on area roadways. While the falling snow became lighter through the afternoon hours of December 23rd, winds began increasing during the morning and gusted over 40 MPH through the day. Peak gusts of up to 55 MPH were measured near the Lake Erie shoreline. Peak gusts across the rest of northwestern Pennsylvania were generally 40-50 MPH. Wind gusts very gradually subsided into December 24th, though gusts didn't drop below 30mph until that evening. This led to a prolonged period of widespread blowing and drifting snow beginning during the morning December 23rd and continuing through the afternoon and evening, with some patchy blowing and drifting snow continuing overnight and all the way through Christmas Eve. In parts of northwestern Pennsylvania the blowing and drifting snow was extensive enough to lead to blizzard conditions on December 23rd. This storm caused a number of impacts across the area. The greatest impact was to travel due to the flash freeze and extensive blowing and drifting snow, to go along with low visibility. Numerous minor accidents, slide-offs and disabled vehicles were reported throughout the area on December 23rd and 24th. Wind chills dipped to -25 to -40 across all of northwestern Pennsylvania on December 23rd. A number of burst pipes were reported across northwestern Pennsylvania due to this cold, with temperatures remaining in the single digits until Christmas morning. Erie International Airport recorded 3.0' of snow with this storm, with amounts as high as 8.0' measured by a trained spotter in Greenfield Township.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1092366. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.