Chesterton Tribune

 

 

Cold is coming; -20 cold could generate wind chills as low as -55 Wednesday

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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Heavy snow and high winds hit northern Indiana ahead of temperatures as low as 20 degrees below zero forecast for Wednesday.

A winter storm moved across northern and central Indiana on Monday morning with the National Weather Service predicting up to 7 inches could accumulate in some areas. Wind gusts could reach 35 mph.

The snow should end today before what the weather service calls “historic cold weather” forecast Tuesday and Wednesday. Temperatures will drop into the minus teens Wednesday dropping to as low as minus 20 Wednesday night.

Forecasters warned of frostbite within minutes and hypothermia if precautions aren’t taken.

Wind chills are forecast to drop as low as minus 55 in Northwest Indiana Tuesday night through Thursday morning.

County offices and schools closed today

All Porter County government offices were closed today and a travel advisory was in effect until further notice after a heavy snow began to fall early this morning.

The Duneland Schools were also closed today and an “inclement weather eLearning day” declared. Teachers were supposed to post their assignments by 10 a.m. and students have until 10 a.m. Wednesday to submit them.

At 6:30 a.m. the Highway Department was reporting heavy drifting in unincorporated county--exacerbated by winds which were “picking up fallen snow that had accumulated over the past several days and blowing it back onto the roads”--and within minutes of being plowed, roadways were covered all over again.

Chesterton Street Commissioner John Schnadenberg told the Chesterton Tribune that the snow began to fall around 2:30 a.m. and a shift of plow drivers was on the streets by 3 a.m. concentrating on the main roadways. Every two hours the mains had to be re-plowed, however, and by 9 a.m. they’d been cleared three times, with a break to make a single pass through the subdivisions. Schnadenberg estimated that by rush hour a good four to five inches of snow had already fallen. The Street Department’s full fleet of seven vehicles was at work, he added, supplemented by a pair of trucks on loan from the Building Department.

Schnadenberg added that it was his understanding both Ind. 49 and I-94 were in rough shape during the morning commute.

 

 

Posted 1/28/2019

 

 
 
 
 

 

 

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