Winter Storm in Portage, Ohio

A potent winter storm affected northern Ohio on December 22nd and 23rd. Low pressure developed over eastern Texas early on the 22nd and then moved quickly northeast. The low eventually tracked across eastern Ohio during the morning hours of the 23rd after dumping nearly two feet of snow on portions of Ohio. The snow began in northeastern Ohio late on the morning of the 22nd and then intensified during the afternoon. Visibilities during the evening hours were near zero at times. After midnight, warmer air moved into the area and caused the snow to first mix with, and then change completely to freezing rain. Temperatures briefly climbed above freezing around daybreak on the 23rd causing the freezing rain to change to rain. Colder air working in behind the low changed the rain back to light snow later in the morning. Periods of snow then persisted through the middle portion of the afternoon. Snowfall accumulations ranged from 12 to 16 inches over Lake, Geauga and northern Ashtabula Counties, and 4 to 6 inches in southern Mahoning County. In addition, most of the area saw at least a quarter inch of ice accumulation with as much as one half inch of ice over most of Mahoning and southern Trumbull Counties. Scattered power outages resulted from the ice accumulation. Travel during this event was very treacherous with hundreds of accidents reported. It took several days for road and power company crews to completely clean up after this event. Damage and clean up costs for this storm were in the millions.