The Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday gave many people Monday off from work and school – not that most would have needed much incentive to stay home given the conditions outside.
Temperatures in the single digits combined with wind gusts up to 35 mph to produce wind chills of 20 to 30 degrees below zero throughout the day as Northeast Pennsylvania continued to deal with the icy aftermath of the weekend’s sloppy snowstorm.
At the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport, the low bottomed out at minus 3 around 7 a.m.
As of early afternoon, AAA North Penn had already received 422 calls for emergency road service across its 11-county territory, said Nina Waskevich, director of marketing and public relations. That is three times its normal daily average.
More than half were calls from motorists whose vehicles wouldn’t start because of dead batteries, she said.
“We are definitely busier today,” Waskevich said.
Although area interstates were clear, many secondary roads and municipal streets in the region were covered or partially covered with ice after the wet snow that fell Sunday froze quickly amid rapidly plunging temperatures.
James May, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation District 4 office in Dunmore, urged motorists not to become complacent, even if it appears a roadway has been treated.
“It’s important for people to continue to use extreme caution right now,” he said.
Because road salt loses its effectiveness when the temperature drops below 15 degrees, PennDOT crews have been treating secondary roads with a mix of 75 percent anti-skid material and 25 percent salt, May said.
“They are just trying to provide more traction for the cars,” he said.
In Scranton, the Department of Public Works
trucks were out treating streets with a 50-50 mix of anti-skid and salt until around 9 p.m. on Sunday, director Dennis Gallagher said. By Monday afternoon, he said, DPW had nine or 10 trucks back on the streets.
“It’s a fight out there – I can tell you that,” Gallagher said. “When it drops down to these temperatures, it’s just solid. There’s not much you can do.”
The emergency department at Moses Taylor Hospital treated a homeless person for frostbite, spokeswoman Renita Fennick said in an email.
At Geisinger Community Medical Center, there were no frostbite patients, but more than 20 people were treated for injuries after vehicular crashes, and several others after falls, spokeswoman Alysha Davis said.
With low temperatures near zero expected overnight, the National Weather Service issued a wind chill advisory for the area through 7 a.m. today.
Although the day will get off to a cold start, the temperature will rise into the 20s by the afternoon and there should be a “good amount” of sunshine, AccuWeather meteorologist Tom Kines said.
“It won’t be nearly as brutal out there,” he said.
Wednesday will bring rain, possibly starting as freezing rain, along with a high near 40, Kines said. The low Wednesday night will remain above freezing, and the high Thursday will again be around 40 before temperatures slide back into the 20s on Friday.
Monday marked the 25th anniversary of the coldest temperature ever recorded in Northeast Pennsylvania. On Jan. 21, 1994, the temperature at the airport fell to 21 degrees below zero.
Contact the writer:
dsingleton@timesshamrock.com;
570-348-9132
COLTS will operate on snow routes today, officials announced:
No. 12 Jessup: North Washington Avenue to Green Ridge Street to Blakely Street to regular route to the bottom of Church Street in Jessup.
No. 14 Drinker/Chestnut: North Washington Avenue to Green Ridge Street to left on Blakely Street right on Drinker Street on to regular route (no service on Chestnut or Mill streets).
No. 18 Petersburg: Regular route to Prescott Avenue and Mulberry Street (at Turkey Hill) and turn around.
No. 21 East Mountain/Oakmont: Regular route to Moosic Street to right on Meadow Avenue; turn around in Dollar Tree parking lot.
No. 25 Valley View/Hilltop: Use regular route to South Webster Avenue and Brook Street, then right on Brook Street to left on Prospect Avenue, to left on Cherry Street to South Webster Avenue.
No. 28 Pittston: No Rocky Glen Road; no Williams Street; stay at Pittston Plaza.
No. 31 Old Forge: No Bridge Street; bus turns left on Lonesome Road and then turns around in parking lot near diner.
No. 36 Lafayette: Regular route to left on Garfield Avenue to right on Price Street to left on VanBuren Avenue to regular route. Inbound will use VanBuren Avenue, go right on Price Street, left on Rebecca Street to right on Lafayette to regular route.
No. 38 Oram: Regular route to Mount Pleasant Drive, then use Lackawanna Avenue to Main Avenue to regular route.
No. 41 High Works: Regular route Main Avenue to Oak Street to Keyser Avenue to Keyser Oak Plaza; no service on Dickson Avenue; no service on Ferdinand or Theodore Streets; no service to Allied Services or Delaware Towers.
No. 43 Viewmont/Bangor: Regular route to Bangor Heights, then straight on Kelly Street to left on Kennedy Street, to left on Edith Avenue to left on Mary Street to right on Kelly Street and back to regular route.
No. 48 Dalton/Waverly/Clarks Summit: From the post office in downtown Dalton, the bus will make a right on South Turnpike Road and merge right back onto Route 6 & 11. There is no service to Waverly.
No. 53 Marywood/U of S: Use Adams Avenue to regular route.
No. 99 Minooka / Montage: Regular route to EDM Americas only.
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