Morning commute to be slick and slow

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Two to 4 inches of snow should be on the ground in most of the Mahoning Valley for today’s morning commute with another 2 to 4 expected by Wednesday morning.

“This isn’t a bad snowstorm where you need to get bread and milk,” said Andrew DiPaolo, 21 WFMJ-TV meteorologist, The Vindicator’s broadcast partner. “This is mainly for travel [this morning] and Wednesday morning. If you’re going to be on the road, it’s going to be slick, so drive slowly.”

This will be the second-biggest snowstorm during a 48-hour period this winter, with the largest accumulation of 9 inches happening Dec. 11-12, he said.

The snow was expected to start falling in the wee hours this morning and leave 2 to 4 inches by this morning’s drive.

It’s expected to snow throughout the day, leaving another 2 to 4 inches, DiPaolo said.

The amount of snowfall could be greater in northern Trumbull County and less in southern Columbiana County, he said.

The high temperature today is expected to be in the upper 20s with a low about 15 degrees.

The high temperature Wednesday is expected to be 22 with a low at night of about 15 degrees.

The snow should stop by Wednesday afternoon.

It should be mostly sunny Thursday with a high of 28 and again dropping to around 15 at night with no snow in the forecast.

The area could see snow Friday, DiPaolo said, but it should be “relatively quiet” that day.

The high temperature Friday should get into the upper 30s and be in the low 40s Saturday or Sunday. The low 40s is the normal high for this time of the year.

Mahoning County Engineer Pat Ginnetti said the entire county fleet of 21 trucks was ready and would be deployed depending on the severity of the weather.

A heavy, wet snow would see the deployment of all 21 trucks, while if just overpasses are frozen, fewer trucks would be needed.

Ginnetti said his crews were monitoring weather forecasts all throughout the day Monday, and he noted they changed several times.

Greg Alberini, highway superintendent for the Trumbull County Engineer’s Office, said three trucks were out Monday pretreating roads with brine in anticipation of the snow.

“I have 24 guys and 24 trucks available, and we will salt the hazards, like bridges,” he said.

One positive, he said, is there will be lots of daylight during this storm compared to one in the dead of winter.

Youngstown City School District spokeswoman Denise Dick said the administration in charge of school planning around snowstorms would wait until this morning before making a decision on closing. The administration involved includes Colleen Murphy-Penk, district transportation supervisor; Krish Mohip, district CEO; Joseph Nohra, district chief of operations; and other officials.

“They try to drive the roads ... then decide how bad the roads are or if it’s too cold,” she said.

Dick added that Youngstown schools already have used three calamity days this year.

However, the Ohio Department of Education now keeps track of missed school days in hours.

“The number of hours in an ‘equivalent day’ for a district is the average hours the district meets per day. This is calculated by the total number of hours met divided by the total number of days the district was open,” the ODE’s website says.

District fiscal accountant Holly Airhart said the total hours allotted translate to 10 days before the district is responsible for makeup days.

Paula Lipke, transportation director for Austintown schools, said district representatives drive secondary roads hours before school is intended to start to determine the safety conditions, and then they make a decision.

Alex Geordan, superintendent of Canfield Schools, said they also take several factors into account.

“We think of the safety of our students and staff first and foremost,” Geordan said.