Winter Weather — Berks, Pennsylvania

2008-12-19 · Berks, Pennsylvania

Wider weather episode

A winter storm affected most of Eastern Pennsylvania on the 19th. Mainly ice fell in the Philadelphia northern suburbs, a wintry mix fell in Berks County and the Lehigh Valley and mainly snow fell in the Poconos. Accumulations ranged from less than one inch in the Philadelphia northern suburbs to around eight inches in the Poconos. Ice accretions averaged between two-tenths and four-tenths of an inch in the Philadelphia northern suburbs and the Lehigh Valley.

Precipitation started on the morning of the 19th as snow in the Lehigh Valley and the Poconos and as a mixture of sleet and freezing rain in Berks County and the Philadelphia northern suburbs. As warmer air moved in aloft, precipitation changed to all freezing rain in Berks County and the Philadelphia northern suburbs that morning. Precipitation changed to sleet and then freezing rain during the afternoon of the 19th in the Lehigh Valley. Some sleet mixed in with the snow during the evening of the 19th in the Poconos. Near the city of Philadelphia and in Chester and Berks Counties, surface temperatures rose above freezing during the afternoon of the 19th. Elsewhere, temperatures remained below freezing until the event ended. Precipitation ended during the early evening in the Philadelphia northern suburbs, in the middle of the evening in the Lehigh Valley and toward Midnight EST in the Poconos.

Many accidents occurred because of the wintry precipitation. An 18-year-old man died after a vehicle he was a passenger in spun out of control and was struck by an eastbound heading truck on Interstate 78 near the Berks and Lehigh County line in Greenwich Township (Berks County). Traffic on the interstate was backed up for four hours. Elsewhere in Greenwich Township, Pennsylvania State Route 737 was closed for nearly an hour after a head-on collision. In Northampton County, Northbound Pennsylvania State Route 33 was closed at Pennsylvania State Route 512 for several hours during the middle of the day because trucks could not get up the hill. There were about 50 crashes reported in the county; fifteen occurred during the first half hour of snow. A couple of crashes that resulted in injuries included A LANTA bus that collided with a car in the College Hill section of Easton and a vehicle that crashed on the Fahy Bridge in Bethlehem. Five flights were cancelled because of the weather at the Lehigh Valley International Airport.

In the Poconos, in Monroe County in Middle Smithfield Township, a driver lost his thumb after he slid off a road into a pond. A woman's SUV flipped over on Interstate 80. In Carbon County, vehicles became stuck in the snow in Summit Hill, Lehighton, Jim Thorpe, Franklin and Kidder Townships. Schools were closed and the county courthouse closed at Noon. About 2,000 homes and businesses in the county lost power. In the Philadelphia northern suburbs, Bucks County was hit the hardest. Several trees and power lines were knocked down because of the ice accretion in Warminster and Solebury Townships. About 2,000 homes and businesses lost power. A downed tree also closed U.S. Route 202 in Solebury Township. A man was injured after his van slid off of Interstate 95, down an embankment and into a stream. This accident occurred just north of the Yardley and New Hope exit.

Specific accumulations included 8.9 inches in East Stroudsburg (Monroe County), 8.5 inches in Tobyhanna (Monroe County), 6.5 inches in Albrightsville (Carbon County), 4.9 inches in Martins Creek (Northampton County), 4.5 inches in Easton (Northampton County), 3.5 inches in Slatington (Lehigh County), 3.0 inches in Springfield (Bucks County), 2.8 inches at the Lehigh Valley International Airport, 1.1 inches in Perkasie (Bucks County) and 0.3 inches in Skippack (Montgomery County).

The winter storm was caused by a low pressure system that moved from the central Rockies on the morning of the 18th east to Illinois on the morning of the 19th. The low pressure system reached the western Pennsylvania border early in the afternoon on the 19th. A secondary low pressure system then formed on its warm front in Delmarva and by early in the evening on the 19th became the main low pressure system. At that time it was already racing quickly east of the New Jersey coast. Of equal importance was a high pressure system that shadowed the low as it moved across the southern tier of Canada. It provided a fresh supply of cold air and assisted in having more precipitation fall as not plain rain.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 144766. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.