Heavy Snow in Pennsylvania, December 31, 2001

Name: Heavy Snow in Pennsylvania, December 31, 2001
Start: 2001-12-31T01:00
End: 2001-12-31T16:00
Location: Pennsylvania

December 31, 2001 · NWS CLE · 1 event in 1 county or zone

1 heavy snow, as filed by the National Weather Service.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $50,000
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Cleveland, OH wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Dec 30, 9:55 PM EST, 3 hours 5 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Dec 30, 9:55 PM EST, 3 hours 5 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION...UPDATED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CLEVELAND OH
955 PM EST SUN DEC 30 2001

UPDATING CUYAHOGA COUNTY. THE BAND IS MOVG MORE WLY AND WL NOT SAG
INTO THE COUNTY WITH SNOWFALL. OTRW NO CHANGES. THE INVERSION IS
DROPPG AS PER DTX AND BUF RADAR AND BUFKIT. THAT IS HELPG TO KP THE
OVERNIGHT SNOWFALL AMOUNTS BELOW WARNING CRITERIA. 88D IS CONTG TO
SHOW DCRSG 20 DBZ.

.CLE...
OH...NONE
PA...NONE

KIELTYKA

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.

Heavy Snow, Northern Erie

When: December 31, 1:00 AM EST to 4:00 PM EST
Where: Northern Erie forecast zone
Property damage: $50,000
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 42.118, -80.098 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Westerly flow across Lake Erie caused lake effect snow showers to intensify during the early morning hours. Over six inches of snow fell along and near Lake Erie from just before daybreak through late afternoon. Officially, 6.1 inches of snow fell at Erie International Airport.

What these are

Heavy Snow: Snowfall reaching the local warning threshold without the other hazards of a winter storm.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Pennsylvania in 2001 Every state in 2001 This day in weather history Warnings in Pennsylvania, December 2001

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5274427.