Sleet, Light Snow Moving Into Area
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- A wintry mix of precipitation that is moving into the region could cause some slick driving conditions this evening and into Tuesday's morning commute.
Two systems are bearing down on western Pennsylvania, bringing the possibility of some light snow and sleet.
"They are both headed up the Ohio Valley towards Pittsburgh," explains KDKA Meteorologist Dennis Bowman, "so maybe early evening we get a little bit of light snow and sleet... The chances increase as we get deeper into the evening and certainly into the overnight period it gets a little nasty with some freezing rain to settle into the Pittsburgh area."
Since the snow and sleet isn't expected to move into the area until Monday night, Tuesday morning's rush hour could be a tricky one for drivers.
"Skeleton crews through the evening, maybe five or six trucks out in each section of the county. That's probably half of our fleet, about 30 trucks, out monitoring the road conditions. In the event that it does come early or something does change, they can always call more people out to extend those shifts," Jim Struzzi with PennDOT said.
"We'll have people out there watching the roads. As soon as something happens or something changes, we'll call out full crews. Even if nothing does change, we're still bringing a full shift out at midnight to get a jump on tomorrow morning's rush hour."
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"A transition to freezing rain toward Tuesday morning will 'slicken' things up for the morning rush hour."
KDKA's Chief Meteorologist Jeff Verszyla is calling for an overnight low of 28 degrees. By daybreak, the temperature should climb to about 31 degrees and continue to climb through the day.
As temperatures warm to a high of 41 tomorrow, the precipitation is expected to change to all rain; but we're not out of the clear yet.
"Cold air wraps back in for Tuesday night and Wednesday, changing rain to snow and 'slickening' things for Wednesday morning's rush."
