Holy Night! It Was a White Christmas

Pittsburgh got its 1 inch of snow, and I may have caught karma for my naysay prediction

Not that anyone really cared by the time it came. Subzero temperatures Friday broke records across the country. Wind chills in Pittsburgh remained more than 20 degrees below zero. Perhaps more important, we had snow.

North Bethlehem Farm on Christmas Eve
A dusting covers the hillside on Christmas Eve at this North Bethlehem farm.

What made it a White Christmas?

Snow did not amount to an inch in the Greater Pittsburgh area (unless someone wants to dispute this, roughly 45-50 miles in radius from the center of town) until Sunday morning. Still, it looked white Saturday as I traveled U.S. 40 in Washington County. I stopped to take photos of snow lying on a North Bethlehem hillside. The white added contrast to red farm buildings in the distance.

Had I not been told that meteorologists “required” the inch, I might have been fooled into thinking that a White Christmas was already happening. While I ran errands at Office Max and Target, icy footpaths led from the retail storefronts into a slippery South Strabane parking lot.

Footprints in snow
Footprints show tracks in the Christmas Eve snow at this South Strabane shopping center.

I was planning a blog to say that I was questioning the need for 1 inch of snow for a Christmas to be considered “White.” I suppose you must start the measurement somewhere, but I think a White Christmas could be just a dusting. Meteorologically speaking, you’d call that a trace. Furthermore, you didn’t have to travel far from the city to see much more snow as early as Friday.

Snow-covered Route 22
Snow and ice cover U.S. Route 22 on Christmas Day in Indiana County.

In the ridges of Indiana County, U.S. Route 22 became nearly impassable on Christmas Day. One lane was snow-covered for miles. In the right lane, I periodically got up to 40 mph. But, at times, I found myself completely alone on the road and not pushing 20 mph. With hazards flashing, I even came to a dead stop on a couple of occasions because I could.

The Snow May Have Been Karma

Perhaps my shaming of a White Christmas left me asking for it. My pipes froze Christmas Eve. They hadn’t thawed by Christmas Day when I left home. Not only was travel troublesome that morning, but my car battery also died Christmas night while I was in Cambria County. After picking up a new one the next day from the good people at the Ebensburg Napa, I started to head for home. But my car was not happy. Lights were flashing on the dash. Snow was still falling when I arrived home Monday afternoon.

Cokeburg snow on Franklin Street
Snow continued to fall on Franklin Street late through the afternoon Dec. 26.

The car is fine now and my pipes have thawed. And I’ve learned my lesson. But I’ve also written quite enough about White Christmas.


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