The impact of the first significant snowfall in Butler County
The first onslaught of winter weather this season kept students home from school, resulted in 100 calls to 911 in the span of four hours and caused many vehicles, including an ambulance, to get stuck in the snow Tuesday afternoon.
The National Weather Service told the Butler Eagle towns throughout Butler County received between four and five inches of snow from over night and into late morning Tuesday, Dec. 2.
“Through the course of the morning, we’ve seen over four inches in much of the county’s area. It’s mostly been evenly packed out through the area,” meteorologist Jason Frazier said.
The National Weather Service said the Butler Township neighborhood of Meridian had the highest snowfall in the Pittsburgh region, with 5.1 inches reported around 8 a.m.
Neighborhoods southeast of Butler received around 4.5 inches of snow, Frazier said, while those south of Butler received around four.
Zelienople received approximately four inches of snow, while West Sunbury got 4.1 inches. Slippery Rock was closer to 4.5 inches.
The first big snow of the season had a wide-ranging impact. In Butler County, every public school district was either closed for a snow day or had a remote learning day for its students. Throughout the region, closings and delays were frequent on Tuesday.
Senior centers were also closed Dec. 2. Beth Harold of the Butler County Area Agency on Aging said any time Butler Area schools close for the day, so do the senior centers. She also said home delivered meals were rescheduled to later in the week, due to winter weather conditions sometimes making it dangerous for drivers to deliver the meals.
The winter weather significantly affected Butler drivers, too. A Butler County Emergency Services dispatch representative said Tuesday morning that the office received calls for about 100 incidents between 6 a.m. and 9:45 a.m. for crashes related to snowfall. The majority of the crashes and incidents were minor with little to no injuries reported, along with no road closures by 10 a.m.
Still, the weather conditions caused problems for passenger vehicles, trucks and emergency responses. Calls received by dispatchers included numerous instances of vehicles losing control and drifting off of the road.
In one instance, an ambulance belonging to Butler Ambulance Service got stuck in snow after sliding off of the road along Route 8 in Mercer Township, near Ethan Hill Road. A tow truck trying to get the ambulance out caused traffic to back up.
Frazier said around noon that the greater Butler area had probably passed the point of additional precipitation, and that temperatures would drop at least into the low 20s over the next several nights.
Weather forecasts suggest that in the next week, low temperatures could drop into the low to mid teens.
“We’re keeping an eye on roads that do see any melting of snow. If they’re still untreated, there’s the potential for patchy ice as temperatures do fall at night. We’re looking for lows to be in the lower 20s for the Butler area, and for some roads to be slick for travelers,” Frazier said.
