Crews working to restore power as record cold temps and winds persist

Work crews across the region are continuing to restore power to customers left in the dark by record cold and high winds that moved across Western Pennsylvania on Friday and into Saturday morning.

As of about 4 p.m. Saturday, Duquesne Light was reporting about 2,300 customers affected by outages. The majority of those, 1,850, were in West Mifflin. That was a spike in customer outages from earlier in the day.

The utility said it expects to restore power to all of its customers by 9 p.m. Saturday.

In the six-county Pittsburgh area, West Penn Power was reporting about 500 customers without power — 120 in Westmoreland, 112 in Armstrong, 101 in Butler, 85 in Washington, 61 in Allegheny and 26 in Beaver.

Restoration times ranged from 10-11 p.m. Saturday to 10-11 p.m. Sunday.

PJM Interconnection, the electric grid operator for 65 million people in 13 states including Pennsylvania, has asked the public to conserve electricity by reducing use, if health permits, until 10 a.m. Sunday. Conservation will help ensure adequate power supplies, PJM said.

Southwestern Pennsylvania is getting a taste of what it feels like in Anchorage, Alaska on Saturday. At one point in the day, the officially recorded temperature in both locations was 5 degrees, according to the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh.

In Pittsburgh, the high is expected to get to only 10 degrees around 7 p.m. or 8 p.m.

That would set a new record low high temperature for the day, breaking the previous record of 13 degrees standing since 1983.

Meteorologist Fred McMullen said the Pittsburgh region set a record low for Friday when the temperature dipped to minus-5 degrees. The previous record was minus-3 degrees set in 1960.

A high-wind warning that has been in place since early Friday morning is expected to be downgraded by noon as conditions slowly improve.

“It will be warmer than it was yesterday,” McMullen said.

The deep freeze increased the chances of water main breaks across the region, like the one that occurred on Fifth Street in Aspinwall on Friday. Crews were working to repair it Saturday.

The temperature when the Steelers kick off their Christmas Eve game against the Las Vegas Raiders is expected to be about 8 degrees with feels-like wind chill estimated to be about minus-10.

“Christmas Day highs will be higher and maybe reach the 20s,” McMullen said. “We’ll have temperatures at around 30 to 40 degrees and maybe into the 50s on New Year’s Day.”

HOV lanes reopen

PennDOT reopened the Parkway North high-occupancy vehicle lanes in Ross and Pittsburgh on Saturday.

The Interstate 279 HOV lanes were closed beginning Thursday night because of the winter storm.

Drivers can check road conditions online at 511pa.com. The site provides traffic delay warnings, weather forecasts, traffic speed information and access to more than 1,000 traffic cameras. It is also available through a smartphone application, by calling 511 or following regional Twitter alerts accessible on the website.

Warming center hours

Warming centers in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County officials remain open:

Brentwood Community Room (beneath library): Open through Christmas day at noon;

Dormont Community Room (lower level of municipal building): Open until power is restored;

Pitcairn Hose Co. No. 1 (100 S. Center Ave.): Opening at noon through Christmas day;

Verona Municipal Building available as needed due to utility loss, residents should call 911 for access;

Brighton Heights, 3515 McClure Ave.: Open until 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. to midnight on Christmas Eve;

Homewood, 7321 Frankstown Ave.: Open until 4 p.m. on Christmas Eve;

Greenfield, 745 Greenfield Ave.: Open until 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve;

Sheraden, 720 Sherwood Ave.: Open until 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. to midnight on Christmas Eve;

South Side (Market House), 12th & Bingham Streets: Open until 4 p.m. on Christmas Eve.

Staff writer Brian C. Rittmeyer contributed to this report.