The few inches of snow from Thursday’s winter storm will likely stick around for Christmas
Thursday’s winter storm brought a couple of inches of snow to Happy Valley but caused plenty of problems for drivers and residents.
Centre County generally received between two and four inches of snow, Matt Steinbugl, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in State College, said. The western part of the county received lower amounts of snow and the eastern part received more, he said.
Ice amounts from this storm are harder to measure, he said, because there was the initial period of freezing rain and a lot of sleet. Steinbugl said there was less than a tenth of an inch of ice.
When the storm began hitting Centre County early Thursday morning, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation urged drivers to avoid unnecessary travel. Penn State’s University Park campus was closed Thursday, along with all Centre County school districts and a number of local businesses.
As the day went on, temporary travel restrictions were put on the local roads and highways, weather-related crashes were reported — some of which caused roads to close for a period of time — and hundreds of people continue to be without power in the Penns Valley area.
Looking ahead
Steinbugl said the upcoming forecast shows colder patterns through the holidays, with temperatures below normal. There is a potential for another storm in the next week or so.
“We are watching the potential for a storm sometime before Christmas Eve. But still a lot of uncertainty and a lot of questions to be answered there,” Steinbugl said.
So, will there be a white Christmas? Steinbugl said that depends on what one considers to be a white Christmas. The National Weather Service defines a “white Christmas” as having one inch or more of snow on the ground Christmas morning.
Even if there isn’t a snowstorm between now and Christmas, the snow from Thursday’s storm won’t be in any hurry to melt, he said.
“The snow on the ground now is probably going to be sticking around with the colder temperatures. It’s just a matter of whether we get some fresh snow for Christmas with that potential storm system,” Steinbugl said.
