Pennsylvania Faces Extreme Weather Causing Delays and Early Dismissals

Pennsylvania Faces Extreme Weather Causing Delays and Early Dismissals
Posted on 01/10/2018
Harshita Gupta
Staff Editor

Pennsylvania has faced extreme weather conditions due to the unprecedented bomb cyclone that has swept through the east coast. The weather has been bitterly cold for the last week, and as always students wait in feverish anticipation every night hoping for a two hour delay or a snow day call to come in.
“I really enjoy getting that phone call in the morning; not only do I not want to get out of bed in the bitter cold, but it gives me extra time to get myself together or to finish up homework. With midterms around the corner, this extra time is a lot of help,” junior Avni Sanghvi said.
Because of the bomb cyclone and the unprecedented cold, the entire east coast has received record-breaking temperatures and snowfall, as well as intense winds and flooding. Boston has broken a record for its high tide, and even Florida is is getting snow. New York saw up to half a foot of snow and Virginia Beach was under blizzard conditions. The bomb cycle occurred when the snowstorm experienced a rapid decrease in pressure due to temperature differences and took on a hurricane formation.
“It feels like the coldest weather it’s ever been during the winter. It’s like the cold bites at you; driving into school in the morning is almost unbearable,” senior Nikita Marathe said. “I can’t wait until the weather warms up again and spring starts.”
As for Pennsylvania, a lake-effect snowstorm on Christmas Day covered the fourth largest city, Erie, with nearly five feet of snow, breaking both city records and the state snowfall record. 34 inches of snow fell on Christmas Day, smashing the city record of 20 inches. Over the next 3 days, the total went up to 65.1 inches, shattering Erie multi-day snowfall records; the city got enough snow over a two day period to break its previous snowfall record over a 13 day period. It also shattered the Pennsylvania two-day snowfall record of 44 inches. December was the snowiest month in Erie’s history, with snow falling upwards of 3 inches an hour.
“It’s really interesting to see the weather do this; I had never even heard about this phenomenon before it took over the news and social media,” Marathe said. “It can be scary to think of that much snow sweeping through our area but from what I have seen, the east coast and and Philadelphia will be the ones affected.”
In our area, temperatures fell into the life-threatening negatives during the first week of January and it resulted in mixed, wintry precipitation and icy rain around Cumberland Valley, leading to two hour delays as well as an early dismissal within a five day period. The entire central Pennsylvania area, including Cumberland County, was under a winter weather advisory and residents were advised to stay safe and avoid travel. The weather moved up to the 40s and 50s later that week. Make up days for any snow days are February 15, 2018 and March 18, 2018.

 Stay warm and safe Cumberland Valley.
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