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A winter storm travelling up the eastern part of the country has settled down over Scranton and is expected to stick around until tomorrow, though the worst snowfall should stop later tonight.
The snow has not yet caused many traffic problems, according to the Lackawanna County Communications Center, but at least one crash has been reported.
A COLTS bus collided with multiple cars in the 1000 block of Lackawanna Avenue shortly before 3 p.m. but only minor injuries had been reported, dispatchers said.
After about two hours of snowfall, roughly ten traffic crashes have been reported in Lackawanna County, according to the communications center.
Most of the crashes arose out of vehicles unable to climb or descend slick hills sliding into one another, dispatchers said, but so far no serious injuries have been reported.
A vehicle on the North Scranton Expressway heading toward Dickson City just beyond the Keyser Avenue exit has caused some delays but the issue is only that the car ran out of gas, dispatchers said.
Four to eight inches of snow are expected to fall on Northeast Pennsylvania by the time the storm finishes up in the area around sunrise tomorrow, said Tom Kines of Accuweather.
Mr. Kines said the most significant snowfall will wrap up around midnight but sparse snow showers should hit the area throughout Thursday.
The storm, which began along the gulf coast in the form of tornadoes and thunderstorms, is sweeping across much of the eastern part of the country and will likely give Scranton its first real snow accumulation this year.
With that in mind, the state Department of Transportation’s District 4 office has already shifted into storm mode, opening its 24-hour incident command center in Dunmore and putting all necessary employees on 12-hour shifts, said James May, PennDOT spokesman.
“Everything is activated,” he said.
Mr. May said trucks began the effort to stymie the snow’s effect on roads by spraying brine over road surfaces in anticipation of the storm.
Once the snow starts to accumulate trucks will turn to salt-spreading, an effort aided by a fully-stocked supply of salt building up since last winter, which did not bring much snow with it.
“This is the first real, real big one,” he said.
PennDOT said speed limits have now been reduced to 45 mph on interstates 81, 80 and 78. The department is urging motorists to avoid unnecessary travel.
Elsewhere:
■ County of Lackawanna Transit System buses are now using snow routes as of 2:45 p.m.
■ Two flights to Newark have been canceled at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport.
NWS advises those who need to travel this afternoon into Thursday to monitor forecasts and weather statements.
Updated weather information is available at www.accuweather.com upon entering zip code, municipality, or airport code.
For details on road travel conditions, check: www.thetimes-tribune.com/traffic. For local flight information check: www.thetimes-tribune.com/local-flights.
Contact the writer: domalley@timesshamrock.com,@domalleytt on Twitter