National Weather Service issues winter storm warning for region

A major winter storm headed for Western Pennsylvania might dump 6 to 11 inches of snow from mid-afternoon Sunday into Monday afternoon, according to the latest prediction from the National Weather Service office in Moon Township.

The National Weather Service in Moon issued a winter storm warning Saturday afternoon. Snow is expected to start at 1 p.m. Sunday and last until the same time Monday.

Whatever the total ends up being, Allegheny and Westmoreland County public works departments say they are prepared for what comes.

Westmoreland County has equipment in place to deal with the snow, according to county engineer Vaughn Neill, who oversees snow removal.

“Plow drivers are scheduled for Sunday afternoon, when it is expected to move in, and remain staffed around the clock as needed for the duration of the snow event,” he said.

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• Pittsburgh officials say snow response will be better ahead of Sunday storm
• Meteorologists say predicting this particular storm is tricky stuff

Allegheny County also is prepared.

“We will deploy 30 salt trucks when the snow begins to fall and will provide continual coverage of county-maintained roads until the precipitation stops and county roadways are clear,” said Allegheny County public works director Stephen Shanley.

“If needed, drivers will be kept over the end of their shifts, more drivers will be brought in, and additional trucks will be deployed,” he said.

Allegheny County has more than enough salt in stock to handle the accumulation the area is expected to receive, Shanley said.

“It takes our drivers one to two hours to complete their routes. It then takes them about one hour to return to the nearest maintenance garage, reload with salt and restart their routes. So if snow is falling quickly, there will be accumulation on our roads,” he said.

For that reason, Allegheny County is advising motorists to stay home during the storm, if possible.

For its part, PennDOT is setting up an incident command center.

“They’ll collect information from the ground so that we have a better understanding of what’s happening on our roadways and shift resources if needed, and request certain restrictions,” said Steve Cowan, spokesman for PennDOT’s District 11, which includes Allegheny, Beaver and Lawrence counties.

Cowan said PennDOT will start pretreating roadways Saturday with a salt brine solution. It also will close the HOV lanes starting after rush hour Friday, giving PennDOT workers one less thing to plow. The HOV lanes likely won’t reopen until Tuesday morning.

In addition, PennDOT will restrict certain commercial vehicles from being on the roadways, including tractors without trailers, tandem trailers and school buses and commercial buses — unless they have chains installed. There will be speed restrictions as well.

“The (National Weather Service) is talking about an inch to 2 inches per hour, so motorists are going to have to expect that there’s going to be snow on the roadways,” he said. “Hopefully, the Steelers game helps out, and people just stay home, enjoy the game and keep off the roads.”