Lake-effect snow buried Pennsylvania’s fourth-largest city under more than 4 feet of snow over Christmas, smashing both local and state snowfall records while hampering holiday travel around the Great Lakes.
With snow falling at a rate of up to 3 inches per hour, the National Weather Service reported Erie, Pa., picked up 53 inches in a 30-hour period ending Tuesday morning.
Erie officials have declared a state of emergency and are pleading with motorists to stay off city streets and nearby highways, including Interstates 90 and 79.
According to the National Weather Service, Erie received 34 inches on Christmas Day, easily topping its previous 24-hour snowfall record. After 19 more inches piled up from midnight through 7 a.m. Tuesday, the National Weather Service said Erie had broken Pennsylvania’s previous all-time two-day state snowfall record, set in 1958 when Morgantown received 44 inches.
An additional 1-2 feet of snow could fall across the Erie through today.
So far, Erie has received 93 inches of snow in December, making it snowiest month in the city’s history. The city averages about 100 inches of snow in an entire season.
Located along Lake Erie nearly midway between Buffalo, N.Y., and Cleveland — which the storm has largely spared, so far — Erie’s 99,000 residents are used to heavy snow and brutal winds. In late fall and early winter, cold air pours over the relatively warm lake waters, picking up moisture and depositing it downwind as snow.
But the heaviest snow usually falls away from the immediate lakeshore, where higher elevation helps to squeeze out the most moisture. It’s also relatively rare for the most intense snow bands to remain parked over one area for an extended period.
This time, the snow band stalled along the shoreline, clogging streets in Erie with mounds of snow.
Despite whiteout conditions at times, travel around Erie was complicated by residents who tried to press ahead with their Christmas plans.
Jane Dorler, 41, said she and her husband relied on their Toyota Tundra truck to make it to her parents’ house for Christmas dinner.
"We didn’t have to, but my husband wanted to, and he thought it was an adventure," Dorler said. "We had to go 10 miles across town, and I remember when I got out onto the road, I was like, ‘they haven’t even plowed this. And I said to him, ‘this is probably the worst I have ever seen.’?"
At times Monday, travel lanes on Interstate 90 were blocked by stuck vehicles or jack-knifed semitrailers. But the highway remains open, although Pennsylvania state police are urging motorists to postpone travel if possible.