BETHLEHEM, Pa. — The United States is engulfed in frigid arctic air, and it pushed wind chill values to minus 4 degrees in the Lehigh Valley early Wednesday.
It came after a lengthy snowfall Tuesday delighted kids, but disrupted travel across the region.
The deep freeze also pushed area school classes back at least two hours on Wednesday for some districts and closed others, and there’s another snow event brewing that could shutter schools again Friday.
Around 8 a.m. Wednesday, Whitehall-Coplay School District moved from a two-hour delay to a full closure due to icy conditions on campus.
Coping with the bitter cold — we’re in this together
Record cold temperatures swept through the Rockies, Great Plains and Midwest on Tuesday, with wind chills below minus 30 even extending into the mid-Mississippi Valley.
Parts of the Pacific Northwest were under an ice storm warning through Wednesday morning, causing treacherous road conditions and widespread power outages, the Associated Press reported.
The Tennessee Valley Authority, which provides electricity in seven states, asked customers to voluntarily cut back, citing a high demand for power because of the weather, the AP reported.
A similar plea came from the grid operator in Texas.
Central Pennsylvania bore the brunt of the cold closer to home, with wind chills as low as minus 20.
Wind chill advisories covered parts of 10 Pennsylvania counties early Wednesday, warning of frostbite on exposed skin in as little as 30 minutes.
There’s no relief from the frigid air expected this week, forecasters say.
The wrinkle in Friday’s storm
EPAWA's 1/17 and week ahead outlook, covering:
— Bobby Martrich | EPAWA (@epawawx) January 17, 2024
■ Very cold temperatures Wednesday despite sun
■ Look at the Friday system and an inverted trough
■ Milder temperature trend heading into next weekhttps://t.co/wSUCPfpi9h
“We have this system coming in late Thursday night or Friday and it’s going to last much of the day again,” EPAWA meteorologist Bobby Martrich said in his latest video forecast.
He emphasized the system does not look like a huge event.
“However, there is a wrinkle to this and it’s in the form of an inverted trough,” Martrich said, pointing to isobars — or lines of equal pressure — pointing in from the Atlantic toward the Lehigh Valley area.
"That is an inverted trough that is starting to show ... and what an inverted trough is is an area of rapidly rising motion,” he said.
He said it could lead to heavier precipitation for an undetermined corridor.
Martrich said the variables at play with the storm made it a “next to zero chance” that first calls on snow totals would be spot-on, and that updates would be made again Thursday.
“Any forecaster that is going to tell you [Wednesday] that they know what’s going to happen in a specific area is feeding you a line, because this is one of the most difficult things" to forecast, he said.
The National Weather Service called the system a “quick mover, with the bulk of any snow falling during the daytime hours on Friday and ending early Friday evening, followed by another very cold night.”
NWS forecasters also said they’d wait to see how guidance shifts over the next 24 hours, but may need to consider issuing winter weather advisories for Friday within the next few forecast shifts.
