Winter Storm in Crawford, Pennsylvania

A potent winter storm affected western Pennsylvania 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 heavy snow and freezing rain on Erie and Crawford Counties. The snow began in these counties during the morning of the 22nd and intensified around midday. Moderate to heavy snow with snowfall rates of half an inch to an inch per hour then continued until around midnight on the 23rd. 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. As the low moved east, colder air advected in changing the rain back to light snow late in the morning. Periods of light snow then persisted through the middle portion of the afternoon. Snowfall accumulations ranged from 6 to 9 inches in northern Erie County to 4 to 6 inches in far southern Crawford County. In addition, between one quarter and one half inch of freezing rain fell on most of Erie and Crawford Counties. Officially, 7.9 inches of snow and one half inch of freezing rain were measured at Erie International Airport. Scattered power outages resulted from the ice accumulation. Travel during this event was very treacherous with dozens of accidents reported. Damage and clean up costs for this storm were considerable.