Snow, freezing rain expected
The National Weather Service of Pittsburgh has issued a winter storm watch from 1 a.m. Thursday through 10 a.m. Friday.
The watch warns of snow accumulation and accretion across portions of Western Pennsylvania, east-central Ohio and northern West Virginia.
Light snow accumulation is expected across the region, including in Butler County, but areas above Interstate 80 may see an excess of 6 inches of snow.
“The upcoming winter storm will begin as rain for most locations, with a changeover to freezing rain, sleet, & eventually snow as colder air filters in,” the National Weather Service of Pittsburgh posted Tuesday on Twitter.
The weather service predicts freezing rain in Butler County beginning between 6 and 8 p.m. Thursday and snowfall to end between 6 and 8 a.m. Friday
Warmer temperatures are expected Wednesday ahead of the storm system, the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh said in a Tuesday evening Twitter post.
At that time, there were no changes to the forecast, including the watch that was issued earlier Tuesday.
Airlines canceled hundreds of flights Tuesday, governors urged residents to stay off roads and schools closed campuses as a huge swath of the U.S. braced for a major winter storm that was set to put millions of Americans in the path of heavy snow and freezing rain.
The approaching blast of frigid weather, which was expected to begin arriving Tuesday night, put a long stretch of states from New Mexico to Vermont under winter storm warnings and watches. More than a foot of snow was possible in Michigan, on the heels of a vicious nor’easter last weekend that brought blizzard conditions to many parts of the East Coast.
“It will be a very messy system and will make travel very difficult,” said Marty Rausch, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in College Park, Md.
The projected footprint of the storm extended as far south as Texas, where nearly a year after a catastrophic freeze buckled the state’s power grid in one of the worst blackouts in U.S. history, Gov. Greg Abbott defended the state’s readiness. The forecast does not call for the same prolonged and frigid temperatures as the February 2021 storm and the National Weather Service said the approaching system would, generally, not be as bad this time for Texas.
“No one can guarantee that there won’t be any” outages caused by demand on the power grid, Abbott said Tuesday. “But what we will work to achieve, and what we’re prepared to achieve is that power is going to stay on across the entire state.”
In November, Abbott had, in fact, made a guarantee for winter: “I can guarantee the lights will stay on,” he told Austin television station KTBC.
Airlines canceled more than 1,000 flights in the U.S. scheduled for Wednesday, the flight tracking service FlightAware.com showed, including more than half taken off the board in St. Louis.
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson declared a state of emergency as school districts and universities shifted classes to online or canceled them entirely.
Chicago O’Hare International Airport also canceled more than 100 departing flights, and airports in Kansas City and Detroit were also canceling more flights than usual.
The National Weather Service said 6 to 12 inches of snow was expected by Thursday morning in parts of the Rockies and Midwest, while heavy ice is likely from Texas through the Ohio Valley.
The weather service said 8 to 14 inches of snow was possible in parts of Michigan on Wednesday and Thursday. That includes Detroit, where the mayor activated snow emergency routes, and city crews were expected to work 12-hour shifts salting and plowing major roads.
In Tulsa, Okla., where up to 7 inches of snow and sleet are forecast but little ice, emergency management director Joe Kralicek said the event is not expected to cause large-scale power outages based on an ice index used by the National Weather Service.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
