Winter Weather — Northampton, Pennsylvania

2015-03-03 · Northampton, Pennsylvania

Wider weather episode

An approaching warm front generated a mixture of snow, sleet and freezing rain in Eastern Pennsylvania during the afternoon and evening of the 3rd. Snow and/or sleet accumulations averaged 1 to 3 inches in the Lehigh Valley and Poconos and around an inch or less throughout the rest of Eastern Pennsylvania. Ice accumulations averaged around one tenth of an inch. The wintry mix led to many traffic accidents (one with a fatality) as well as causing isolated power outages. A few thousand homes and businesses lost power in the Philadelphia suburbs.

Snow began falling throughout most of Eastern Pennsylvania between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. EST on the 3rd. In the Poconos, a mixture of sleet and snow fell into the middle of the evening on the 3rd before a transition to freezing rain. The freezing rain ended shortly after Midnight EST on the 4th and overnight as more precipitation moved in, it fell as rain. Across the Lehigh Valley, the snow changed to sleet toward evening on the 3rd and then to freezing rain during the first half of the evening. The freezing rain changed to plain rain late that evening. Across the rest of Eastern Pennsylvania, the snow changed to sleet during the middle of the afternoon on the 3rd and to just freezing rain later that afternoon. Precipitation ended late that evening as plain rain, except some pockets of freezing rain persisted in the colder northern Philadelphia suburbs.

In Northampton County, in Stockertown, a 46-year-old man was killed after the box truck he was driving collided with a tractor-trailer on southbound Pennsylvania State Route 33 early on the 4th. The roadway was closed for four hours. Earlier that night, police temporarily shut down part of Pennsylvania State Route 33 north of Pen Argyl because of five miles of black ice on the road. On the evening of the 3rd, a disabled vehicle on the southbound Blue Route (Interstate 476) in Montgomery County caused a major back-up. Many spin-outs were reported on Interstate 95 in and around Philadelphia. Speed reductions were in place on nearly every major turnpike and highway in Eastern Pennsylvania. In southeastern Pennsylvania SEPTA train, buses and trolley routes all had delays. Philadelphia International Airport had twenty percent of its flights cancelled, with several hundred others delayed. Many schools had early dismissals and cancelled after school activities. Many schools had delayed openings on the 4th. Schools in the Lehigh Valley were also closed on the 4th.

Representative snow and sleet fall included 3.2 inches in Bartonsville (Monroe County), 2.8 inches in Jim Thorpe (Carbon County), 2.5 inches in Bushkill Township (Northampton County), 1.8 inches in Martins Creek (Northampton County), 1.7 inches in Stroudsburg (Monroe County), 1.5 inches in Albrightsville (Carbon County) and Fleetwood (Berks County), 1.2 inches at the Lehigh Valley International Airport, 1.0 inch in Perkasie (Bucks County), 0.8 inches in Spring Mount (Montgomery County), 0.7 inches in Huffs Church (Berks County), 0.5 inches at Langhorne (Bucks County) and Blue Bell (Montgomery County and 0.3 inches in Drexel Hill (Delaware County).

Representative ice accumulations included 0.13 inches in Drexel Hill (Delaware County), 0.10 in New London (Chester County), Reading (Berks County), Doylestown (Bucks County) and Pottstown (Montgomery County) and Lebanon (Hunterdon County) and around 0.05 inches in Mount Pocono (Monroe County) and Philadelphia.

The wintry mix of precipitation was caused by the combination of an arctic high pressure system leaving cold air in place near the surface that was overrun by milder air aloft preceding a warm front lifting through the Tennessee and Ohio River Valleys on the 3rd. This push of warm air did work its way down to the surface overnight on the 3rd.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 565286. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.