Butler County dealing with effects of changing winter weather patterns
Butler County residents are beginning to feel the effects of dropping temperatures and fluctuating periods of snow as winter weather sets in across the area.
The chance for snow accumulation and wind gusts as high as 40 mph prompted the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh to send out a winter weather advisory on Thursday morning that will remain in effect through 7 a.m. Friday.
West Penn Power and Central Electric Cooperative reported a combined total of nearly 400 outages, most of them being in Bruin and Summit Township. All power was restored, though, as of Thursday afternoon.
Butler Area School District, Butler County Area Vocational-Technical School, Freeport Area School District, Karns City Area School District, Knoch School District, Mars Area School District, Moniteau School District, Seneca Valley School District and Slippery Rock Area School District all operated on two-hour delays Thursday, while Allegheny-Clarion Valley School District canceled school.
Northern parts of the county have the chance to see the most significant snowfall throughout the evening hours on Thursday and into Friday morning. Meanwhile, the rest of the county will not face much more precipitation, if any.
“If there are more significant impacts, it’s going to be the very northern tip of the county, much closer to where we’re going to see the lake effect (snow) be,” said Matt Brudy, of the National Weather Service. “For most of the county, it’s likely that we’re not going to see much more than a half-inch to an inch (of snow).”
The state Department of Transportation’s arsenal of plow trucks were out in full force in the midmorning hours Thursday, and will remain out as the cleanup effort continues.
“The roads are essentially either wet or a little bit snow-slush covered throughout the county,” said PennDOT community relations coordinator Tina Gibbs. “We’ve got 43 trucks available and 39 of them were out (as of 10 a.m. on Thursday). The number of trucks that are out aren’t going to drop. We’re pretty much keeping full shifts running and all trucks out.”
Gibbs noted that there were no active traffic restrictions on highways throughout the county as of Thursday afternoon, but said the best way to ensure everyone’s safety was to drive with caution.
“We just encourage drivers to be safe, give themselves extra time to get to their destinations and give our plow trucks a lot of space while they’re out there doing what they need to do,” she said. “That’s just so everybody can get to where they need to get to safely.”
