Posted on 03/29/2022 12:02:15 PM PDT by lightman
The snow squalls that caused Monday’s 50-car pileup on Interstate 81 that killed five motorists and injured dozens more literally slipped under the radars of the National Weather Service.
A snow squall caused near white-out conditions around 10:30 a.m. when the first crash took place on I-81 north near mile marker 116 in Foster Township. Drivers told reporters they were blinded and their vehicles knocked around as additional vehicles crashed into them.
The National Weather Service had made no observations of snow squalls in the area of the crash in I-81 until it sent out warnings at 12:15 p.m.-1:30 p.m., 12:48 p.m.-1:45 p.m., 1:29 p.m.-2:45 p.m. and 3:06 p.m.-4:15 p.m., according to David Martin, a forecaster with the National Weather Service.
Snow squalls are a brief, heavy burst of snow that comes along with gusty winds and poor visibility, Martin said.
Squalls are dangerous because they can form in minutes, then dissipate or move along to another place unexpectedly. They are difficult to anticipate, and once they are there, hard to escape, Martin said.
“If there is a gap anywhere in central Pa., it is in Schuylkill County down to Lancaster and Lebanon County. They are the furthest from our radar and Philadelphia’s,” Craig Evanego, a forecaster with the National Weather Service, said.
Because of the curvature of the earth, the National Weather Service’s radar beams are only able to detect weather events higher in the atmosphere above spots far from their towers, Evanego said.
Radar visibility is also more limited in spring because storms tend to be closer to earth. In the summer, weather events are detectable higher up, Martin said.
Snow squall warnings are often given just hours in advance when weather conditions align for their formation, as opposed to winter storm warnings which can be predicted days in advance, according to Martin. Because of that, the most forecasters can often do is predict the conditions for a squall to form, and not the squall itself.
“A squall will be in one location one minute, then 30 minutes later be somewhere else,” Martin said.
Meteorologists and other weather experts took to Twitter Monday and Tuesday to discuss a hole in radar coverage over the area of Schuylkill County where the incident on I-81 occurred.
Jesse Ferrell, a forecaster with AccuWeather, said the pileup on I-81 was in a “radar hole”, and that the lowest scan was at 8,000 feet—above the altitude of the snow squall.
Steven Schultze, an associate professor at University of South Alabama, published a map in 2020 showing spots that could be missed by radar.
Adis Juklo, a meteorologist with ABC 27, shared a forecast map indicating radar showed very little over Pottsville where the I-81 pileup occurred. He called for a Terminal Dopplar Weather Radar to be installed in the area to increase that visibility.
Once squalls are in a forecast, Martin recommended drivers should delay any trips and avoid the roads, if at all possible. Once a driver is on the highway, however, they should get off at the nearest exit, he recommended.
Pulling off onto the shoulder of the interstate is dangerous, according to Martin, because another vehicle might hit yours.
“If you can’t pull off safely, proceed with very much caution and be very careful. Don’t stop in the middle of the road—that can cause major problems,” Martin said.
PennDOT might also use road treatments to help the situation.
“Things can be done—there’s just not a lot of time,” Martin said.
The National Weather Service’s State College office issued 16 squall warnings Monday, one of the highest number of such warnings in the four years they’ve been issued, according to Martin. Snow squalls accounted for 14 warnings during a similar storm on Feb. 19. That 40-car pileup that injured five people also occurred on I-81, about 25 miles northeast of Monday’s pileup but still in Schuylkill County.
“It would be in the top three, if not at the top since we started issuing them,” Evanego said of the snow squall warnings Monday. “It’s definitely one of the most widespread events we’ve issued snow squall warnings for.” Sample HTML block
We had a 20min, mini-blizzard over here in East York!
A friend’s husband was stuck in that mess, yesterday. He’s OK and so is his car. He said it looked like a 9/11 Disaster Site as he and others were ushered through by the State Patrol.
When I HAVE to drive into Madison, I’m always wary of one spot on the highway. It is rather low, marshland on either side. One morning three winters ago during the regular morning commute, fog suddenly filled the highway and they had a huge pile up like that when people were all blinded going into it. One woman died; many, many crunched cars.
Stay safe out there, People!
Terrible! We did get the warnings here, and a small squall went thru’ a bit later — from sunny skies and a little wind to whiteout conditions within a minute or so — then back to sunny (but very cold).
I’ve only driven in a squall one time/ Luckily it was a typical suburban shopping street that I was fairly familiar with and there were not many cars around at the time. I turned a corner and saw a few flakes falling and suddenly it was difficult to see even a few feet ahead with swirling snow everywhere. Wipers were useless. I slowed down to a crawl and when I spotted an open curb to a parking lot area, turned in there to wait it out. Only took a few minutes to pass but it was wicked!
“The radar coverage gap...”
Our farm is located in one of those! Last summer we had some tornadoes go through and my phone was ringing off the hook by people convinced my farm had been swept away!
Scary for them - but I had no idea I was in any danger at all.
(We never got hit; nothing around us got hit, either.)
Been there. Earlier this winter when it was an otherwise balmy day until I reached Minersville where this happened. Some snow flurries — and then I turned onto 81S and couldn’t see a thing. I mean visibility nothing, worse than what they show on the dash cam video of yesterday’s pileup. They say it’s the peculiar area by that mountain. Ten miles south,I was back in gentle snow flurries.
The locals do tend to drive like demons but ordinarily there’s no traffic to complain about in that area. This morning they’re saying 5 people died. One vehicle caused an explosion and fireball, and some disabled vehicles were hit repeatedly.
We had a dusting in the area, but in that small area near Minersville it was a snow squall. It was blowing, not landing much. Emergency alerts -- at least three in a short period -- were on my phone but if you're not by that mountain you'd think it was no big deal.
WE REALLY NEED DOPPLER AT HIA!
- = - = -
Would that cover Schuylkill county? WGAL has a doppler in Manchester Township, IIRC.
Rot roh.
Maybe 15 years ago there was pile up due to a winter storm on I-78 around Valentines Day. I think Corbutt (Rino) was governor at the time. The Democrats and media savaged him and PennDot was turned upside down. That was another situation that wasn't really avoidable, but that doesn't stop leftists from making it a political issue. I think it is karma time. Tom Wolf (Commie) should be savaged, abused and ridiculed. He should already be rotting in prison for the rest of his life for the thousands of seniors he killed in nursing homes (along with Richard Levine). Wolf, Democrats and trannies are mass murderers either through active policies, or through neglect and mismanagement as in the case of this pileup. Heads should roll and needles injected in arms to insure this never happens again. (I really don't believe that they could do anything, but if we can use a little Alinsky against, why not?)
How heavy was the son? 250 pounds? 300?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU8BnFmEEmQ
Here’s the video I saw, dash cam. It happened very fast and shows one person trying to dive out of the way as the car comes in.
The guy just standing next to his car like an idiot almost got killed.
Exactly.
Yes...any grassfire place. One time I was driving up to Sacramento, and a huge cloud of smoke from a fire suddenly made the road look like it was midnight. I was at the very edge of it and got out on the other side - but a number of people behind me died when the crashes started. And there’s really no way of predicting things like this.
One ton son.😁
WGAL’s “super doppler 8” is kid stuff compared to the real NOAA installations.
How many MORE people must die until we get real doppler coverage in the lower Susquehanna valley?
How do you know? And it was an ambush….it was completely unexpected. That’s like saying a gun would’ve helped you when you’re jumped from a side street alley. There is nothing you can do.
Ice fog when I lived in Alaska was the one thing I wouldn’t drive in. Was worse than regular fog or snow storms.
Jerk giving (foul) commentary while filming. Then all upset about his car.
Someone nearly gets plastered in the wreck and he’s whining about the car. Clearly this is a big disaster and priorities need to be checked.
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