NORRISTOWN >> Many central Montgomery County residents woke up Tuesday morning expecting a blizzard of snow at their feet and found mere inches of snow.
The predicted snowfall of 6 to 8 inches didn’t materialize, but two local school districts heeded the call for caution and stuck to their original plans for full shutdowns. Norristown Area and Upper Merion Area school districts remained closed for the full day.
The Methacton and Colonial school districts opted for a two-hour delayed opening schedule. Montgomery County Community College in Whitpain opened at 10:30 a.m., and Ursinus College in Collegeville was on a regular schedule Tuesday.
“It was a trickier forecast than we anticipated. The heavier snow totals stayed further east in New Jersey and in New York,” said Bill Deger, a meteorologist at AccuWeather.com. “We were dealing with two systems, a clipper system from the west from Ohio and an area of low pressure off the East Coast. That low pressure system veered further to the east and we ended up in the middle of those two systems.”
Deger said predicted snow totals were 6 to 10 inches for central Montgomery County, but most totals from Monday night were 1 to 2 inches with a high of 2.5 inches at Graterford. Deger said that snow totals for the region would rise as reported snow totals were updated this morning by the National Weather Service.
“New York City got less snow than expected. Seven to 8 inches in Central Park. Eleven inches at LaGuardia Airport,” he said. “They got close to 2 feet in central and eastern Long Island. It is still snowing there.”
The forecast for Tuesday called for temperatures in the mid to upper 20s across the area with light snow falling. Temperatures were expected to rise to near 30 in some areas in the afternoon, but there was little snow melting. Wind gusts out of the northwest reached 25 miles per hour as the backside of the snowstorm brings blowing snow.
“On Wednesday temperatures should climb above freezing with some sunshine in the afternoon,” Deger said. “On Wednesday morning the temperatures will be below freezing.”
George Nave, the working foreman for Norristown public works, said his work crew had been out salting the roads until early Tuesday morning.
“We’ve been out all night. It looks like we got about 4 inches of snow. Its the light fluffy snow and it packs down as you drive over it,” Nave said. “I have 15 guys out there. Eight trucks with plows and the other workers are shoveling sidewalls around borough hall.”
Nave said the snowfall “was considerably less than we expected. It was basically a salting event until it started snowing harder. We switched to plowing the snow.”
Nave said his crews were lucky to operate Monday night without problems.
“All through yesterday and last night we didn’t have any breakdowns. Today one of the truck had an oil leak and the handle on another truck that raises the dump body for salting broke,” Nave said. “They are being repaired now and one truck will be back on the road in a half hour.”
Joseph Jay Zummo, a co-owner of Zummo’s Hardware in Norristown, said, “We went through a couple pallets of salt yesterday. I’m sitting on a lot of snow shovels from last year but they are going out the door right now.”
Zummo said that his wholesaler would begin resupplying his stock of salt after they finished filling the landscapers’ orders.
“Everything is pretty good now,” he said. “Thank you Jesus we did not get all that snow.”
Contact Carl Rotenberg at 267-907-6137 (c) and 484-679-8476.
