Winter Storm Blankets Eastern U.S

While watching television early Thursday morning, we heard that a snowstorm would be coming to our area on Friday. The local television station we were watching was WNEP. Viewers were told to expect up to 7 inches of snow on Friday, February 22, 2008.

After hearing that report, we made a grocery-shopping list and headed for the local supermarket to buy some much needed groceries.

We stopped at the post office to mail some letters and hoped that there would not be any delivery delays because of the weather.

When we finally got to the local supermarket, the store was more crowded than usual. Perhaps other shoppers had heard about the upcoming snowstorm too.

That night, while watching WBRE television, we saw the various school closings displayed at the top of the television screen. The snow is really coming!

When we went to sleep Thursday night the snow had not yet started in our area. Friday morning before getting out of bed, we knew that there must have been some snowfall over night because we heard the snowplow pass in front of our house a few times early in the morning before 7AM.

After getting up, we looked out the windows and saw that there was plenty of snow outside.

While eating breakfast we watched a herd of deer walking in the woods near our house. It was nice to watch them walking through the snow.

At times the snow was falling rather steady and heavy up until very early in the afternoon on Friday. The snow looked so pretty as it clung to the branches of the trees.

On Friday afternoon, while watching WYOU television, we saw the various closings displayed across the top of the television screen. Along with the school closings, we also saw that some Meals on Wheels programs were not delivering meals on Friday.

The WYOU website informed us that our area could expect sleet and a bit of freezing rain Friday afternoon along with the snow. For a little while the sleet or freezing rain could be heard hitting the windows in our house. The website let us know that the snowfall totals would be between 4 to 8 inches.

Later in the afternoon, from our kitchen, we could see another herd of deer in a nearby empty lot.

For road conditions in our area, residents or those traveling to our area can use any of the following options.

PennDOT Road Conditions: 1-888-783-6783
This is an automated system, which gives you interstate roadway conditions. You are prompted to either say or press the number of the interstate for which you want road conditions.

PA Turnpike Conditions: 1-800-331-3414 enables you to speak with a representative about road conditions. While waiting, a recorded message informs callers that they can also use the PA Turnpike website to get road conditions.

If you would like to view a radar map showing the weather for your area you can visit the Weather Underground website. You need to type in the zip code for your area and then you will see the weather conditions for your area. To view the radar map simply click on it and you will be able to view an enlarged radar map for your area.

During the WYOU news broadcast on Friday, February, 22, 2008 at approximately 5:40 PM the viewers were informed that we could expect between 1 and 2 more inches of snow until 9PM Friday evening. We are also told that there might be more sleet until 9PM.

The snowstorm has put a delay on our outdoor holiday decoration schedule. My husband needs to take down a Valentine's Day decoration that we have outside and put up a decoration for St. Patrick's Day, but he will have to wait a few days until the snow gets cleared.

We got about 4 inches of snowfall on Friday, with about another 1 inch of snow and some ice and sleet by Saturday morning.

Please use caution if you are traveling on snowy, icy, etc. roads. Keep safe!