PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A snowstorm hit the Northeast part of the country Tuesday morning, canceling and delaying flights, making roads slippery and prompting many school districts to cancel classes. Overnight rain turned into quickly moving snow, throwing the morning commute into chaos.
PennDOT crews had to put off road-salting operations until after the rain stopped. Plow and salt trucks spent the morning playing catch-up.
Throughout the region, officials urged people to take precautions, including staying off the roads. PennDOT temporarily reduced the speed limit on several interstates to 45 mph in the east-central region of the state because of the storm.
"Simply put, conditions are extremely poor," the Doylestown Township Police Department posted to social media. "Most roads are snow covered and slick. Please stay home unless absolutely necessary."
Wet snow stopped falling in most locations around 1 p.m. According to Accuweather meteorologist Mike Doll, neighborhoods in Philadelphia and many New Jersey suburbs got from 1 to 3 inches of precipitation. Suburban areas north of the city got hit with 3 to 6 inches — and further north, toward the Lehigh Valley: 6 to 10 inches.
Mass transit riders lucked out. SEPTA’s Andrew Busch said conditions after the storm were not that bad, but there were still some detours and delays in effect: “With this type of weather, we're seeing delays anywhere in the area of 10 to 20 minutes, depending on where people are traveling.”
Even if the snow has cleared, riders are advised to allow for a little extra time to get to their destinations.
The not-so-great news came for air travelers. More than 1,000 flights were canceled Tuesday morning, mostly at airports in and around New York City and Boston.
Philadelphia International Airport spokesperson Heather Redfern said there were dozens of flight cancellations and delays at PHL, and they expect to have a backlog for some time.
“Even if it gets sunny here … crews were misplaced. They weren't able to get in here because of bad weather elsewhere. Equipment wasn't able to get here; it's not here to do that turnaround,” Redfern said. “Pay attention to weather across the country.”
Airports in the region asked travelers to check with their airlines in case of cancellations and delays.
Power companies said they were ready to respond to possible outages that could occur because of trees and branches falling onto electricity lines. There were more than 145,000 outages reported Tuesday morning in Pennsylvania, but most of those problems were solved by midday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.