17 January 2022, 9am

A week ahead of today’s snowstorm the predictions were dire. By yesterday morning the forecast called for 6-12 inches in the Pittsburgh area beginning with wet snow on Sunday, possibly some freezing rain, ending on Monday at 1pm.

With that much warning and a national holiday, Martin Luther King Day, the streets are empty in Pittsburgh.

At 6:50am I found a windless place to measure the snow in my neighborhood, 5.75 inches shown above, and it is still snowing at 9am.

Here are more scenes before dawn.

Maintenance crews were already out blowing, shoveling, salting and plowing to keep up with as many as 3 more inches.

The sky was white with snow but I could see lights in the distance.

It was already drifting on the roof with a lot more drifting predicted as winds reach 17 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 34 mph.

More snow is on the way but the worst is now north of us, according to the NWS Storm Prediction Center. 1-2 inches per hour in the highlighted areas.

One thing is clear. Don’t drive in it.

(photos by Kate St. John, map from NWS Storm Prediction Center via Twitter)