The idea for the icicles hit me like a flash, and I decided I had to do it. I wanted to have the top half of the page make my teeth chatter without doing it in a cartoonish way. And I think I did the best I could with it.

1. 50 cents www.timesonline.com Thursday, December 23, 2010
It’s so cold By Bill Utterback ● Times staff
Rough Absolutely
no drought
month As you windshield-
scrape your way
through another frigid
I
t’s been a weird
weather year, morning, be encour-
beginning with the aged by this piece of
record snows of Febru-
ary. news: The drought is
Now we see our over.
December anchored Pennsylvania’s
down in Anchorage. Department of Envi-
This is the coldest ronmental Protection
December in 10 years, lifted the drought
according to National
Weather Service statis- watch for Beaver,
tics, with high tempera- Allegheny, Lawrence
tures averaging 29.5 and 19 other counties
degrees and low tem- on Dec. 17. A watch
peratures averaging 19. or warning had been
We’ve had 17 days, in place for 92 days,
including nine in suc-
cession, where temper- and residents were
atures remained below urged to comply with
freezing. The average DEP’s voluntary 5 to
temperature for the 15 percent water
month is 24.25 degrees, usage reduction plea.
moving us toward a Feel free to wash
top-five all-time cold
December. Times photo by LUCY SCHALY cars and water lawns
“We’re stuck in a per- this week.
sistent pattern of weath- The drought persist-
er,” Lee Hendricks, a ed through one of the
HOW COLD IS IT?
meteorologist with the rainiest Novembers in
National Weather Ser-
history and a Dec. 1
vice facility in Moon
Township, said. “Our flood that forced
weather systems are families along Conno-
pushing off to the quenessing Creek to
Northeast and bringing Monaca Water Department employee Jared McKay, above, works to repair a water line break at evacuate by boat.
in cold air behind them Apparently, that was
from the Great Lakes ... Pennsylvania Avenue and Eighth Street early Wednesday afternoon. Before the water supply was
drought spilling into
it’s been more of a Janu- cut off, the break sent water shooting over the tops of cars passing by. Borough officials could not
ary pattern than a basements and mak-
December pattern.” be reached for comment on the extent of problems caused by the break. ing roads impassable.
Here’s the worrisome part: DECEMBER TEMPERATURES
December temperatures in the Pittsburgh YEAR AVERAGE HIGH AVERAGE LOW DAYS ABOVE 40 DAYS ABOVE 50
region have fallen in each of the past five years.
In 2006, the average daily high was 47. And 2010 29.5 19 3 1
there were 24 days above 40, including 15 above
50, three above 60 and a 70-degree day. 2009 38 23 10 5
In 2007, the average daily high was 41; we had
14 days above 40, including eight above 50 and 2008 41 24 16 9
two above 60.
In 2008, the average daily high was again 41, 2007 41 27 14 8
and we had 16 days above 40, nine above 50 and
two above 60. 2006 47 30 24 15
A year ago, the average daily high was 38; we
All-time average 40 25 — —
Source: National Weather Service
See COLD, Page A2
SURE, WE’RE SUFFERING SOME COLD, BUT OTHER AREAS ARE EXPERIENCING WORSE WEATHER. B3
Man gets jail for crash with bus Findlay cops find child porn stash
Bill Utterback probation, Wednesday by Allegheny Coun- Michael Pound of possessing child pornography.
Times Staff ty Judge Edward Borkowski. Times Staff The discovery of Northrop’s stash came
Anderson, who once lived in Baden, purely by chance, Findlay police said. Offi-
A former Beaver County man has been pleaded guilty to 19 charges — including 13 FINDLAY TWP. — A call to police from a con- cer Charles Gerlach wrote in court records
sentenced to jail for driving his vehicle counts of reckless endangerment, two cerned landlord last spring resulted in the that police were summoned to Northrop’s
into a Moon Area School District bus while counts of drunken driving and possession arrest of a Findlay Township man on child apartment by a manager of the Red Deer
injecting heroin, according to the Alleghe- of a controlled substance — on Sept. 21, pornography charges. Apartments complex on March 22 because
ny County district attorney’s office. according to court documents. Francis H. Northrop has been jailed the manager suspected that a water line
John Brady Anderson, 47, of Harmony, In November 2009, Anderson’s vehicle after Findlay police arrested him in his had broken in Northrop’s apartment and
Butler County, was sentenced to six to 23 apartment on Tuesday. Northrop, 75, of 404
months in jail, followed by five years of See CRASH, Page A6 Red Deer Lane, is charged with 39 counts See STASH, Page A6
50 cents ‘DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL’ DIES; NUKE TREATY, 9/11 SURVIVOR HELP LIVE. B1
© 2010
Beaver
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