Winter Weather in Pennsylvania, February 3 to 4, 2009

Name: Winter Weather in Pennsylvania, February 3 to 4, 2009
Start: 2009-02-03T19:00
End: 2009-02-04T02:00
Location: Pennsylvania

February 3 to 4, 2009 · NWS CTP · 1 event in 1 county or zone

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: None recorded
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 happened

The episode as NWS CTP wrote it up.

An intense snow band produced six to twelve inches of snow in about a six hour period around the city of Lancaster. The heavy snow started in the evening on the 3rd and continued through midnight, before tapering off in the early morning hours on the 4th. The heaviest snow (ten to twelve inches) fell over Manheim Township, where snowfall rates were likely sustained at nearly three inches-per-hour.

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 State College, PA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Feb 3, 4:00 PM EST, 3 hours earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Feb 3, 4:00 PM EST, 3 hours before

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Hazardous weather outlook, Feb 3, 5:33 AM EST, 13 hours 27 minutes before

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In the hours before

Special weather statement, Feb 3, 6:15 PM EST, 45 minutes before

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The radar

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

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 winter weather. Local standard time, as filed.

Winter Weather, Lancaster

When: February 3, 7:00 PM EST to February 4, 2:00 AM EST
Where: Lancaster forecast zone
Reported by: Broadcast Media
Coordinates: 40.042, -76.248 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

TV meteorologists from WGAL, spotters and Millersville University reports indicated heavy snow in excess of eight inches fell along and east of Route 501 from Lititz to Hunsecker. The snow band arched to the east southeast along Route 30 with heavy snow reported from Eden to Paradise. Remarkably, a few locations picked up as much as a foot of snow in only a short duration.

What these are

Winter Weather: Snow, sleet or freezing rain below warning levels that still caused disruption, damage or casualties.

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

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Pennsylvania in 2009 Every state in 2009 This day in weather history Warnings in Pennsylvania, February 2009

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 2026-09-30. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 144498.