Ice Storm — Eastern Chester, Pennsylvania

2014-02-04 to 2014-02-05 · Eastern Chester, Pennsylvania

Wider weather episode

A major winter storm brought heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain to the Poconos, a heavy wintry mixture to the Lehigh Valley and Berks County and a crippling ice storm to Philadelphia and in particular its western suburbs. Snowfall reached as high as ten inches in the Poconos and ice accumulations were as high as half an inch. The combination of new ice and snow still on the trees from the just concluded winter storm caused a record breaking 715,000 customer power outages in the PECO Energy service area in and around Philadelphia (849.000 throughout Pennsylvania). This was the worst power outage event ever for the winter season, represented about 45 percent of all its customers and the second worst behind Sandy for the utility. It took about one week to have power fully restored. The weight of the snow, then sleet and freezing rain on limbs all collaborated to cause more tree damage then would have occurred if trees were bare at the start of this event. Governor Tom Corbett declared a State of Emergency. President Barack Obama also declared a state of emergency in Pennsylvania. Many counties and municipalities also declared snow emergencies or states of emergency. Government offices, schools and businesses were closed. Some schools as well as universities, such as Villanova and West Chester, remained closed for the rest of the week. More than a dozen hospitals in the Philadelphia area ran on generators. Red Cross shelters and warming centers were opened. Some boil water advisories were also in effect because water treatment plants lost power.

In Philadelphia and the nearby suburbs, precipitation started as sleet (and a bit of snow) during the late evening on the 4th. Precipitation changed over to freezing rain within a couple of hours of the start. Precipitation then changed to plain rain from south to north between 6 a.m. EST and 9 a.m. EST on the 5th. The rain ended that afternoon. In Berks County, the Lehigh Valley and the Poconos, precipitation started as snow right around Midnight EST on the 5th. The snow fell heavy at times before sunrise in the Poconos. In the Lehigh Valley and Berks County, precipitation changed to sleet between 1 a.m. EST and 2 a.m. EST on the 5th and to freezing rain between 2 a.m. EST and 5 a.m. EST on the 5th. Precipitation changed to plain rain between 8 a.m. EST and 11 a.m. EST that morning and ended during that afternoon. In the Poconos, precipitation changed to sleet around 7 a.m. EST on the 5th, then freezing rain around 9 a.m. EST that morning. Some valley locations changed to plain rain, but over the higher terrain freezing rain persisted until precipitation ended during the middle of the afternoon. A very light wintry mix then occurred in the Poconos during the early evening of the 5th.

The greatest impact from the winter and ice storm occurred in the Philadelphia suburbs as power was lost for up to one week. Repair crews from throughout North America assisted. About 5,100 workers were involved in the restoration process. Sections of the Schuylkill Expressway and U.S. Routes 202 and 322 were closed because of downed trees. Downed trees also littered the Pennsylvania Turnpike, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Northeast Extension and U.S. Routes 30 and 1. There were posted speed reductions on the Pennsylvania Turnpike and an empty tractor-trailer ban. Commuter rail and bus service was also affected. Amtrak rail service between Philadelphia and Harrisburg was suspended until the 8th. SEPTA suspended four regional rail lines until the 6th. Others ran with delays of at least 30 minutes.

In Chester County, whole municipalities lost power as did 87 percent of the county overall. There were about 400 tree blocked roadways in the county. Hardest hit municipalities included Highland, Charlestown, East Nantmeal, Parkesburg and West Vincent. West Chester University was used as a shelter. About 265 Verizon telephone customers lost service in West Fallowfield Township. In Montgomery County, there were 340 calls for electrical fires, 1,001 road obstructions, 153 crashes, and more than 4,000 calls for police assistance. Fifty major roadways were blocked by fallen trees. In Philadelphia, there were 139 cancelled flights at the Philadelphia International Airport on the 5th. A fallen tree limb injured one man. In Bucks County, over 90 percent of Doylestown, New Hope and Yardley lost power. Eighty state maintained highways were blocked by fallen trees. Power outages in Delaware County were the worst along its border with Chester County. Throughout the Philadelphia area, dozens of people suffered carbon monoxide poisoning because of improper ventilation of generators.

In the Lehigh Valley and the Poconos, power outages were less as more precipitation fell as snow and sleet. The total number of customers without power were around 1,000. In Lynn Township (Lehigh County), a collision between a pick-up truck and van resulted in the death of a 52-year-old man and a 58-year-old woman and one additional injury. In Northampton County, Pennsylvania State Route 33 Northbound was closed near Freemansburg Avenue in Bethlehem Township due to a crash that involved a tractor trailer and a bus.

The number of PECO Energy customer outages peaked at 715,000 on the 5th. It dropped to 499,000 on the morning of the 6th, 440,000 on the evening of the 6th, 275,000 on the afternoon of the 7th, 182,000 on the evening of the 7th, 160,000 on the morning of the 8th, 82,000 on the evening of the 8th, 23,000 on the afternoon of the 9th and 5,600 on the 10th. This ice storm also made it the worst winter for outages in the utility's history: 1,097,900 outages. The previous winter season record occurred in 1993-1994 with 1,011,377 outages.

Representative ice accumulations included 0.50 inches in West Chester (Chester County) and Wayne (Delaware County), 0.40 inches in Northeast Philadelphia, Allentown (Lehigh County), Blandon (Berks County) and Royersford (Montgomery County), 0.30 inches in Upper Darby (Delaware County), Bushkill Township (Northampton County) and Eaglesville (Montgomery County), 0.25 inches in Furlong (Bucks County) and Gilbertsville (Montgomery County) and 0.20 inches in Mount Pocono (Monroe County) and Forks Township (Northampton County).

Representative snowfall and sleet accumulations included 10.0 inches in Lake Harmony (Carbon County), 9.5 inches in Albrightsville (Carbon County), 9.0 inches in Tobyhanna and Pocono Summit (Monroe County), 7.0 inches in Kidder Township (Carbon County) and Bushkill Township (Northampton County), 6.5 inches in Jim Thorpe (Carbon County), 6.2 inches in Saylorsburg (Monroe County), 6.0 inches in East Stroudsburg (Monroe County), 4.0 inches in Palmerton (Carbon County) and Forks Township (Northampton County), 3.7 inches in Lehighton (Carbon County), 3.1 inches in Schnecksville (Lehigh County), 3.0 inches in Martins Creek (Northampton County), 2.4 inches at the Lehigh Valley International Airport, 2.0 inches in Kutztown (Berks County), 1.2 inches in Gilbertsville (Montgomery County) and 0.8 inches in Chester Springs (Chester County).

The winter storm was caused by a low pressure system that formed in the western Gulf of Mexico on the morning of the 4th and a surface high pressure system that passed over the region and with the assistance of the snow cover locked in cold air near the surface. This low pressure system moved northeast and reached Mississippi during the early evening of the 4th and the Tennessee River Valley around Midnight EST on the 5th. About the same time, a secondary low pressure system was forming on the primary low's warm front off the North Carolina coast. Both low pressure systems in tandem proceeded to move northeast and at 7 a.m. EST on the 5th, the primary low pressure system was over southeast Ohio with the secondary low pressure system off the Delaware coast. As is typically the case, the primary low pressure system weakened and reached western Pennsylvania during the early afternoon on the 5th while the stronger secondary low pressure system was just off of Long Beach Island on the New Jersey coast. This secondary low pressure system intensified as it rapidly moved northeast and was southeast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts at 4 p.m. EST on the 5th. What was left of the primary low pressure system trundled across Eastern Pennsylvania and Northern New Jersey during the late afternoon and early evening of the 5th.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 502752. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.