"The Morning Call Inc., Copyright 2002"
Date: WEDNESDAY, January 23, 1985
NORMAL' WEATHER RETURNS
The Morning Call
It's over.
The Arctic front that swooped down from Canada several days ago has blown itself out and temperatures started to climb yesterday as Lehigh Valley residents ventured outside to face ''normal winter temperatures.'' Cars even started.
''That front is long gone,'' said Charles Giannetta of the National Weather Service at the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton Airport. The front broke away from a Canadian cold air mass over the weekend and put much of the United States into a deep chill as many temperature records were shattered.
Giannetta said cold air will continue to come down from Canada for the next several days, but temperatures will gradually climb to the mid-30s by Saturday. Yesterday's high was 26 degrees and the low was 6 degrees. Today will be much the same.
For John Heeney and other American Automobile Association workers it's been a long, cold haul punctuated by the endless ringing of telephones and dispatching tow trucks to stranded motorists whose batteries couldn't handle the sub-zero temperatures. ''It's something you can't prepare for,'' said Heeney.
Aside from few cat naps, Heeney has been up since Monday at 4:30 a.m. manning the phones at the Allentown office of AAA. Most of the other dispatchers and truck drivers also put in consecutive 18-hour days. The local AAA - which serves Lehigh County and parts of other surrounding counties - responded to 1,500 calls on Monday and over 1,000 calls yesterday.
''Every light on the phone console was lit up,'' said Heeney. ''You just have to stay competitive (with the weather).'' Ninety percent of the calls were from motorists with dead batteries, he said.
''There were some complaints by some members who waited too long for service,'' said Heeney, who added for the most part members understood the problem facing AAA and waited patiently for service.
While the Arctic weather is a menance to most people, Heeney said it gives AAA workers a chance to test themselves. ''You never really know what kind of service you can provide until you get weather like this,'' he said.
There was always full service being offered by the AAA. ''We didn't have to suspend service like some other parts of the state. We faired pretty well.''
Despite warming temperatures yesterday, Heeney's work was still unfinished. ''Unfortunately, I'll go home and take a shower and shave, and I'll be back for the rest of the night. You never know what's going to happen.''
Yesterday, area fire companies were also busy responding to calls of broken water pipes and sprinkler systems. The Allentown Fire Department responded to about six homes and businesses including the Vance Travel Bureau, 842 Hamilton Mall, and Matte Dress Corp. at 6th and Lehigh streets.
''But this is not the worst of it. Everything hasn't thawed yet,'' said an Allentown firemen. He said when the ice in the pipesbegin to thaw there will be water leaking out of many pipes that were cracked by ice.
On Sunday, the Lehigh Valley tied a record of minus 4 degrees set in 1948. Monday's average temperature was minus two degrees. The wind chill factor on both days fell way below zero - it dropped to 63 below Monday.
These temperatures forced the closing of a number of area schools and set new records for energy use. Customers in PP&L's 29-county service area used a record 5,523,000 kilowatts on Monday between 8 to 9 a.m., up 6 percent from a record set three years ago.
|
"WEATHER BY GIANNETTA"