Pittsburgh had to wait until the spring to get the heaviest snowfall it saw all winter.
The storm on Tuesday and Wednesday surpassed any single burst of snow the region received this winter, according to the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh.
It was also one of the bigger snow storms to occur over two days in Allegheny County in the past 20 years, according to Tim Axford, a meteorologist with the weather service.
“Some of the snow totals have been unusual,” Mr. Axford said.
Between 5 p.m. Tuesday and 5 p.m. Wednesday, most parts of southwestern Pennsylvania exceeded 7 inches of snow, and some portions of Allegheny County received more than 10 inches, Mr. Axford said.
The snowfall totals from the storm easily topped the previous high amount of snow in a single system this winter.
Mr. Axford said 10.4 inches of snow fell in Moon on Tuesday and Wednesday. In comparison, Moon received 6.3 inches of snow during a storm Jan. 12 and 13, the high this winter.
Snowfall totals closer to the city were mostly around 8 inches. In Mount Oliver, 8.3 inches fell.
Mr. Axford said the amount of accumulation from the storm has been topped only twice during a two-day snowfall in the past 20 years.
Snowmageddon dropped 21.1 inches of snow on the region on Feb. 5 and 6, 2010. Another blizzard left 14 inches in its wake between Feb. 16 and 17, 2003.
“A lot of times it takes the perfect setup for something like this to occur,” Mr. Axford said.
That setup, he said, usually involves a band that sits over an area for a long period of time, with air cold enough for snow. That’s what happened here this week.
Although the storm is over, don’t expect the snow to disappear along with it. No more snow was in the immediate forecast, but Mr. Axford said the region would go through a “very, very gradual” warm up.
Temperatures Thursday and Friday were anticipated to be in the mid-30s, and reach the 40s by the weekend.
“We’re not going to get rid of [the snow] very quickly,” Mr. Axford said. “But we will get rid of it faster than January or February because the ground is warming up.”
Andrew Goldstein: agoldstein@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1352.
First Published: March 21, 2018, 11:45 p.m.
