PennDOT, Westmoreland road crews weather 1st snow storm of 2022

The year’s first winter storm that dumped anywhere from 2 to 5 inches of snow across Westmoreland County over Thursday night into Friday morning created some difficult traveling conditions, officials said.

There were not many accidents reported to Westmoreland 911, though there were more reports of disabled vehicles, a county public safety supervisor said.

PennDOT had snowplows treating state roads before the storm, and then had a full complement of crews plowing highways, said Melissa Maczko, a spokeswoman at PennDOT’s Uniontown headquarters, which covers Westmoreland.

The storm dumped less snow in the western part of the county — about 2 inches in Trafford and New Kensington, but left higher amounts as it moved east: 2.3 inches in Jeannette, 3 inches in New Stanton, 3.5 inches in Hempfield, 4 inches in Stahlstown, 4.4 inches in Ligonier, 4.5 in Laughlintown at the foot of Laurel Mountain and 5 inches in New Florence, said Lee Hendricks, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service. The official count at the NWS office at Pittsburgh International Airport was 1.5 inches, Hendricks said.

In Unity, the township had its 20 plow trucks on the road by 5:30 p.m. Thursday, intending to pre-treat the 180 miles of road the township crews maintain. The snow, however, came down so fast that they were plowing snow, said Mike O’Barto, township supervisor.

Drivers resumed working at 3:30 a.m., plowing the roads for school buses and those who work early, O’Barto said.

In Latrobe, public works crews were on city streets around 8 p.m., pre-treating with salt and liquid brine, said Michael Gray, city manager and a former public works director.

Crews resumed plowing at 4 a.m. to have roads cleared for Greater Latrobe school buses, Gray said.

“Everything went well for our first storm of 2022. We didn’t know we’d get one,” Gray said.

Road conditions in others sections of the county were bad enough that PennDOT issued advisories Thursday night for motorists to drive slower on Interstate 70. Those restrictions were lifted Friday morning.

Among the motorists driving during the snowstorm was Joseph Kalp of Greensburg, who had experienced some dicey road conditions on the way back from visiting his sister in Baldwin.

Aspen Jobe of Greensburg, accompanied her boyfriend as he plowed snow in the Latrobe and Derry areas, from midnight to 5:30 a.m. Friday.

“The roads weren’t too bad,” Jobe said.

Alicia Klingensmith of Jeannette said she did not have any problems driving home after leaving her convenience store job at 11 p.m., but she saw a car slide down Park Street from the football stadium to Jeannette McKee Elementary School.

For 19-year-old Eric Thompson of Jeannette, his first time driving during a snowstorm proved to be memorable for all the wrong reasons. Driving near the Fourth Street underpass in Jeannette, Thompson said his vehicle slid on ice when he tried to make a turn an may have hit a curb, cracking the rim. Thompson said his parents were not too upset and more concerned that no one in the car was hurt.

Motorists will get a break from the snow over the next several days, said Jeanna Lake, a NWS meteorologist. Those traveling north of Pittsburgh, particularly along the Interstate-80 corridor, are likely to experience freezing rain late Saturday night, turning into rain overnight into early Sunday morning, before most people are awake, Lake said.

A cold spell is expected to drop temperatures below freezing over the next few days, with low temperatures bringing wind chills in the “teens” and single digits, Lake said.