Recordpub.com - Keep that shovel ready: More snow, accumulation in Portage forecast

Melanie Matweyou cleans her front sidewalk for the third time on Monday afternoon at her home on Spruce Rd in Ravenna.

Record-Courier staff report

Portage County may not be in the “snow belt,” but a local meteorologist said the northern half of the county is in the “secondary snow belt” and will continue to see snow accumulate today.

Drivers found Portage County roads perilous on Monday, as several accidents required rescue crews to respond. Vehicles were reported off the road throughout the county, and several crashes required paramedics to respond.

Dr. Thomas Schmidlin, a meteorologist in Kent, said four inches of the white stuff came down on Monday, and two to four inches of snow are expected today.

The winds are expected to calm down Wednesday, but on Thursday and Friday, another inch of snow is expected which is not lake effect. This weekend, the cold temperatures and lake effect snow are expected to return.

A lake effect snow warning was in effect Monday for Portage, Summit, Geauga, Cuyahoga, Lake, Ashtabula and Trumbull counties, according to the National Weather Service. That warning was extended to 7 tonight.

Why lake effect snow, when Lake Erie is at least 20 miles away?

Schmidlin said counties in the northern part of the state that border the lake, including Ashtabula and Geauga counties, make up the “primary” snow belt. Those areas have already seen 30 to 40 inches of snow, he said.

But the “secondary snow belt” consists of the northern part of Portage County, which he defined as any community along the 1-76 and Ohio Turnpike corridors, and further north.

So far, he said, Kent has received 18 inches of snow, with Hiram receiving twice as much snow and the southern part of the county getting only a few inches.

He said in the past month, Portage County has seen consistently cold temperatures, with temperatures hitting zero just before the new year in Kent. While two weeks or so of cold weather is not uncommon in Ohio, states to the west and south of us also are facing unusually cold weather, prompting worries about orange and vegetable crops.

Dispatcher Mike Decker of the Ravenna Post of the Ohio Highway Patrol said there had been 15 crashes reported since midnight Sunday, plus numerous reports of undamaged cars off the road. The crashes were spread throughout Portage County.

The city of Ravenna has banned parking on all residential streets through 3 p.m. today, according to Service Director Don Kainrad.

Late in the evening, he said, roads remained snow-covered and traffic was moving slowly, but no tie-ups were reported. Troopers were clearing a crash reported at S.R. 43 and U.S. 224 in Suffield.

A two-car crash with injuries was reported shortly after 2:30 p.m. Monday in the 5100 block of Newton Falls Road in Ravenna Township. A wreck with injuries also was reported shortly before 3 p.m. at Lovers Lane and S.R. 88 in Ravenna, with Ravenna and Rootstown emergency crews responding.

Another wreck occurred shortly before 4 p.m. at S.R. 88 and Liberty Street in Garrettsville.

Snowdrifts up to 18 inches deep were reported in Northern Portage County, on top of the first snowfall of the new year Saturday night. Township, Portage County and Ohio Department of Transportation plows were out in force, clearing the roads.

As of Monday night, the only closing in Portage County reported was at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Aurora, which cancelled its Parish School of Religion classes due to a lack of heat.

Record-Courier staff writers Dave O’Brien and Diane Smith contributed to this story.