PENNSYLVANIA, USA — 2022 was a year of wild weather from start to finish here in northeastern and central Pennsylvania. From memorable storms to drought conditions, almost every month had something to talk about.
The first notable weather event of the year came on Friday, February 4. After a night of heavy rain and then dropping temperatures, we woke up to lots of ice. Department of Public Works crews told Newswatch 16 it was one of the more unique storms they've ever seen. Ironically, the ice even postponed the start of the Scranton Ice Festival.
On February 19, the Saturday of Presidents Day weekend, snow squalls created rapidly changing conditions across northeastern and central Pennsylvania. The squalls moved in from the west in the late morning, and by the afternoon, there was a 50-car pile-up on Interstate 81 in Schuylkill County. Five people were taken to the hospital, but thankfully no one's injuries were serious.
It was a similar scene just one month later on a nearby stretch of Interstate 81, but the outcome was much more tragic. A late morning snow squall moved through on March 28, causing a massive pile-up on I-81 north in Schuylkill County near Pottsville. Six people died, and dozens of others were injured. State police reported a total of 80 vehicles involved in the crash, and portions of Interstate 81 North were closed for more than a day while crews cleared the wreckage in Schuylkill County.
Another notable weather event was the March snowstorm. The week leading up to the storm, the fate of Scranton's St. Patrick's Parade Day was unknown. Ultimately, the parade committee postponed the parade to the following weekend; probably a good call. After all, it was 73 degrees and sunny the next Saturday.
We ended up getting 7 inches of snow in the WNEP backyard on Saturday, March 12; that was the most one-day snow total we had not only for the winter season but in more than a year.
In June, we looked back on Hurricane Agnes 50 years later — 50 years since the Wyoming Valley was forever changed.
The summer of 2022 will go down in the top-five hottest on record for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport, with temperatures recorded from June 1 to August 31, otherwise known as meteorological summer. Both July and August of 2022 ranked in the top 10 for warmest months on record.
Other than the heat, the other big story for the summer of 2022 was the lack of rain. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection officially put northeastern and central Pennsylvania on a drought watch on August 31. Newswatch 16 met many farmers over the summer months to see what the dry weather meant for crops, and all agreed that too little rain is still better than too much.
And after what felt like really no rain all summer long, the unofficial end to the season went out with a bang. A record-breaking 2.28" inches of rain fell on Labor Day at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport. It was the return of "Lake Commerce" in Dickson City that day, and many shoppers were trapped in their cars for hours because of the flooding.
On Tuesday, November 15, we had our first wintry weather of the season. WNEP picked up the first inch of snow in the backyard around 6 p.m., ending the annual snow thrower contest. We picked up a total of 1.2 inches of snow that night, but some higher elevations picked up about 3 or 4 inches of snow.
As 2022 comes to an end, only Mother Nature knows what our weather will be as we look on to 2023.
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