Elizabeth Haught and Jacob McClure were at Orlando International Airport when they learned Friday night that their flight to Pittsburgh had been canceled. So they had to make a decision — wait another day for a flight, meaning they probably would miss Saturday’s Steelers game, or hop in their car and drive the 970 miles to Western Pennsylvania.
Next to them, by coincidence, were Chelsea and Dylan Winkle, trying to get home to Pittsburgh after a Disney vacation.
The couples, strangers until that moment, decided to drive together.
“We took off and drove through the night,” Ms. Haught said in a phone call Saturday afternoon from West Virginia. “The weather was pretty sketchy at first. The roads were not awesome, a lot of wind, and once we got to West Virginia it was pretty bad going through the mountains. The roads were icy and snowy.”
The foursome had to travel through a storm that encompassed much of the nation, placing about 60% of the U.S. population under a winter weather advisory or warning this weekend.
The Pittsburgh region — which also saw stranded holiday travelers, neighborhoods plunged into darkness and hazardous roads — received not only high winds and some snow, but also frigid temperatures that have made the past few days some of the coldest on record.
On Saturday, the National Weather Service expected the region to notch another record, the lowest high temperature for Dec. 24. The old record, 13 degrees set in 1983, was expected to be eclipsed by a high of no more than 10 or 11 on Saturday, said NWS meteorologist Michael Brown.
That comes after a low Friday of minus 5 degrees, a record low for Dec. 23.
Still, the region didn’t get near the record low temperature for Dec. 24, minus 11 in 1983.
“That’s a fairly miserable Christmas Eve, I would think,” NWS meteorologist Lee Hendricks said.
Utility companies in the region, including West Penn Power, Duquesne Light and Peoples Natural Gas, all reported Saturday that some customers still were without electricity or natural gas service.
Less than an inch of snow had fallen in most of the region as of Saturday. Higher elevations to the east and south and in the West Virginia mountains recorded 3 to 4 inches.
Those conditions led to school districts to either close or move to remote learning on Friday. Speed restrictions, since lifted, were put in place for several parts of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
And thousands of airline flights were canceled during one of the busiest travel periods of the year.
For Ms. Haught, those impacts were “stressful at first, for sure. We’re just thankful that we had the opportunity to meet Chelsea and Dylan and be able to drive up here together so we weren’t alone.”
Ms. Winkle agreed, adding “we’re just making the best of it.” She noted that with four drivers, they were able to trade off, allowing others to sleep as they made their way to Pennsylvania.
If Ms. Haught and Mr. McClure made it to the game against the Raiders Saturday night, here is what they saw:
Some Steelers fans, wearing Santa hats and Christmas scarves, gathered outside Acrisure Stadium before the game, but many of the usual tailgating spots were empty. Family members in one car unloaded blankets to prepare for a long, cold three hours or more in the cold.
“I’ve got seven layers on; I don’t think I’ll need it,” one of them remarked about lugging a blanket inside the stadium.
The stadium exit from I-279 to the North Shore, often backed up far beyond the off ramp, didn’t present much of a wait for drivers headed to the game a little more than an hour beforehand. But by kickoff, vehicles stacked up onto the Fort Duquesne Bridge as latecomers tried to get into stadium lots.
A good place to park was Rivers Casino, which charges up to $100 for valet parking at the front door on a normal game day. But early Saturday night, it wasn’t bothering with any fees for this one.
Inside the stadium, several Raiders players warmed up shirtless on the field. Among them was star defensive end Maxx Crosby, who was coatless and in just a T-shirt when the team plane arrived Friday night.
A smaller-than-usual crowd had been expected, and leading up to game time, plenty of seats were filled only with fleece throws and overcoats. Their owners surely were in the concourse, huddling up to keep as warm as possible before subjecting themselves to what was to be one of the coldest games in franchise history. The coldest on record was 2 degrees Dec. 10, 1977, at Cincinnati, while the coldest at home was Dec. 17, 1989, against New England (5 degrees). The coldest game at Acrisure Stadium had been Dec. 31, 2017, against Cleveland (11 degrees).
By kickoff Saturday night, however, the temperature was 8, marking the third-coldest game in team history. But the stadium had begun to fill up; observers in the press box estimated it was two-thirds full.
It might have been a good thing that the two couples decided to drive from Florida. Flight cancellations continued throughout Saturday, with 2,320 within, into or out of the U.S. canceled by the afternoon, according to FlightAware. An additional 5,312 had been delayed.
In Pittsburgh, 25 flights were canceled Saturday, with an additional 66 delayed.
As cold temperatures stuck around Saturday — with wind chills expected to reach minus 13 Saturday night — several area hospitals reported weather-related injuries.
UPMC Mercy in the city’s Bluff neighborhood had seen a “number of frostbite patients” but no hypothermia cases, said Dr. Michael Turturro, chief of emergency services.
Excela Health also had seen a few cases, said spokesman Tom Chakurda.
A wind chill advisory was to remain in effect in the region through noon Christmas Day. The advisory called for “very cold wind chills” reaching between minus 10 and minus 20 degrees. That could cause frostbite on exposed skin in as little as 30 minutes.
In addition to the cold, there was a 20% chance of snow Sunday, likely just flurries, Mr. Hendricks said.
Temperatures are expected to warm slightly, to 15 degrees on Christmas Day. But they will drop as night falls, possibly as low as 9 degrees.
Here’s some good news: Going into the week, temperatures will begin to slowly rise, hitting the 20s on Monday.
By the end of the week, temperatures will be in the 50s, Mr. Hendricks said.
“Monday, we’ll start a gradual warming trend throughout the week,” he said.
First Published: December 24, 2022, 7:40 p.m.
Updated: December 25, 2022, 1:26 p.m.
