Keith Mayer: Winds already causing trouble in Berks ahead of arctic air mass

Jan. 14—Winds were already a problem by Friday afternoon in Berks County ahead of an approaching arctic high pressure system.

Winds began kicking up in the lunch hour with tree limbs getting knocked down onto power lines.

Two such episodes occurred before 2 p.m. in the Bechtelsville area and soon nearly 2,000 Met-Ed customers lost service. Within about 15 minutes the power was rerouted and the outage was down to 400, and all restored by 4 p.m.

Reading Regional Airport, the official National Weather Service site in Berks, had already seen gusts of nearly 30 mph by 2 p.m.

The temperature at the airport fell from 41 degrees shortly before 3 p.m. to 30 degrees at 6 p.m.

The AccuWeather forecast of a windy and frigid overnight remained on track, along with the forecast of 3 to 6 inches of snow Sunday night into Monday.

A low near 10 degrees is likely by Saturday daybreak and upper single digits by Sunday daybreak. Both readings would be lower than the coldest reading in winter 2020-21 of 11 degrees.

Low temperature records for Saturday and Sunday in Berks are minus 2 from 1988 and zero from 1994, respectively. And the coldest high for a Jan. 15 is 11 degrees from 1994.

Many cold-weather date records are from the coldest period in the 123-year temperature database in Berks, the 1970s through 1996.

Winter storm watches are already in place for counties west of the Susquehanna River for the Sunday-Monday storm. No watches or warnings have yet been issued for the Berks area.

The weather service office in Mount Holly, N.J., which oversees Berks and the rest of southeastern Pennsylvania, said this Friday afternoon: "a very cold air mass will rapidly overspread our region through tonight with surface air temperatures tumbling into the teens and single digits."

And as for the storm, "the forecast favors a track roughly near the I-95 corridor. What this means is that precipitation is likely to start as mostly snow, but then change over to a wintry mix for at least a brief period for most of the region. A change to all rain is likely for a majority of the event from the fall line further southeast. It is unlikely that many areas will see all snow for this event."

That forecast is for the region overseen by Mount Holly. Berks is the western-most point of that region, which also includes the Lehigh Valley and Poconos, all of New Jersey except for the immediate New York City area, Delaware and the Maryland eastern shore.

There is still a bit of uncertainty about the track.

For Berks, the weather service has the storms accumulating 3 to 6 inches and changing to rain Monday shortly after midnight and not going back to snow. AccuWeather does forecast a minor snow accumulation later Monday when colder air returns before the precipitation moves out.

PennDOT crews in Berks have made plans for the Sunday-Monday storm. The District 5 region, which includes Berks, expects to have a command center open in the Allentown headquarters at 5 p.m. Sunday.

"All six of our county maintenance offices (Berks, Carbon, Lehigh, Monroe, Northampton and Schuylkill counties) will have a full call out of plow truck operators at or before 5 p.m. Sunday," said district spokesman Ronald L. Young.

"Most roads have salt residue from previous events, and our county staff will evaluate their respective areas and address any areas they feel need additional pre-treating.

"District 5 has plenty of salt and anti-skid materials for this storm."

PennDOT is planning vehicle restrictions starting at 3 p.m. Sunday, including:

—All interstates south of Interstate 80, which would include I-78 and I-176 in Berks.

—The entire length of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which runs through the southern tip of Berks.

The following vehicles will not permitted:

—Tractors without trailers.

—Tractors towing unloaded or lightly loaded enclosed trailers, open trailers or tank trailers.

—Tractors towing loaded tandem trailers unless there are chains or another approved alternate traction device on board.

—Enclosed cargo delivery trucks that meet the definition of a CMV.

—Passenger vehicles (cars, SUV's, pickup trucks, etc.) towing trailers.

—Recreational vehicles/motorhomes.

—School buses, commercial buses, motor coaches and motorcycles.