Pittsburgh region under winter weather advisory for Sunday, 2-4 inches of snow expected

Don’t let Saturday’s eye-popping sunshine fool you.

By Sunday morning, Western Pennsylvania will be under a winter weather advisory that will blanket the region with 2 to 4 inches of snow and make driving conditions hazardous.

The National Weather Service in Moon Township issued the winter weather advisory for 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday.

“We have a low pressure system moving through the area pretty quickly that is expected to remain for an extended period of time,” said Michael Brown, a meteorologist for the weather service. “The way it’s looking now we could see brief periods of moderate to heavy snow falling.”

Brown said the ground is cold, which means much of the snow that falls will accumulate.

Much of the snow is expected to fall during the earlier part of the day, he said.

Sunday’s forecast calls for an 80% chance of snow with a high temperature of 28.

The chance of snow will decrease to 30% overnight, but it will dip to a low of 9 degrees, according to the weather service.

There’s a 60% chance of snow showers after 1 p.m. on Monday, increasing to 80% overnight with a low of around 25 degrees.

Tuesday will be partly sunny and about 21 degrees before dropping down to 5 overnight.

The recent run of temperatures well below the freezing mark has started to cause area waterways to freeze over, Brown said.

“It takes a period of several days of temperatures that are below freezing for the ice to begin forming on the rivers, which is what we’re seeing now,” he said.

Brown said the ice can begin to pose problems when it breaks up quickly, which usually occurs when there are several days of warmer temperatures or rainfall.

He said the rapid breakup of ice can be a danger to water craft and bridge abutments as it floats along the water’s surface.