Cold Temperatures Arrive After Uncharacteristically Mild Start To Winter

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- It's suddenly looking and feeling a lot more like winter.

Snow was falling across the region earlier today. Colder temperatures are also back and that's creating a number of concerns from slick roads to frozen pipes.

The Seven Springs snow machines were working overtime over the weekend, but Mother Nature delivered even more of the white stuff overnight.

She saved her biggest punch for the morning rush hour, laying down a blanket of white that some tread found tough to manage.

It's been a meteorological shock in an otherwise uncharacteristically mild winter.

"What can you expect? It's Jan, 4. Christmas Eve was wonderful, 75 degrees," said one woman.

"I like the cold, cold has its place," said another man. "You've got to have the cold to have the warm and appreciate that properly."

"It's too cold, it's too cold 'cause I'm from Africa," said one man who is new to the Pittsburgh area. "I'm new in this country, so it's too cold."

If he thought it was cold in the sunshine Monday afternoon, well brace for the overnight hours and potentially single digits.

You might also want to check on some things around the home front now that the cooler temperatures have arrived, like those outside water spigots.

"Simply shutting it off," said David Wahl, of Wahl Heating and Plumbing. "Now no water can pass to outside, and the water's shut off. Then, once this is off, go outside open that up, let the water expand and nothing will happen to the pipes."

If you don't, the pipe could freeze and split, and the next thing you know, you have a flood. It's also important to check those exposed pipes in your unheated garage.

"It's not so much the cold temperatures; it's actually air movement over the pipe," Wahl says.

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So plug any holes, like around garage doors, with anything you have to stop the drafting cold air.

You don't want cold air under the kitchen or bathroom sink either, so plug holes around pipes, keep the cabinet doors open and the water trickling.

"It does work, moving water doesn't freeze," said Wahl.

A new furnace filter will also give your furnace a better chance of keeping you warm, and as for the thermostat, the Wahl family says choose a temperature and stick with it.

"Just put it on hold and leave it at one consistent temperature so you stay ahead of the cold weather trying to sneak in your house," said John Wahl, of Wahl Family Heating and Plumbing.