Caution advised as freezing rain slicks roads north, east of Pittsburgh

Commuters in the Pittsburgh metro area should be seeing mostly wet roads Thursday morning, but icy conditions could be encountered north and east of the city, a National Weather Service meteorologist said.

Temperatures in most of the Pittsburgh area were above freezing as of about 5:30 a.m. with just rain falling, meteorologist Michael Brown said.

Isolated areas of ice are possible on elevated surfaces and north of the city into Butler County.

Here are the temps at 5am across the area. Most locations are above freezing, but a handful of sites are reporting below freezing. With rain falling across the entire forecast area, ice accretion is expected in those colder spots. pic.twitter.com/kHgIB9WkKC

— NWS Pittsburgh (@NWSPittsburgh) December 15, 2022

The areas of main concern are on the far eastern side of Westmoreland and Fayette counties into the ridges where the temperature is below freezing and roads could be icy, he said.

Those traveling east and north of Pittsburgh are advised to use caution on the roads.

PennDOT announced traffic restrictions on Interstate 80 between I-79 in Mercer County and Exit 161 in Center County. No commercial vehicles are permitted, and all school buses, commercial buses, motor coaches and motorhomes, and cars, SUVs, and pickups towing trailers are not permitted.

ROAD WEATHER INDEX showing Wet Roads (Green) and Possible Icy Conditions from Freezing Rain (Pink) #WPXITraffic #PittsburghTraffic #WPXI https://t.co/UyYsfsftyh pic.twitter.com/u60w4Utn7g

— WPXI Traffic (@WPXITraffic) December 15, 2022

Some schools in the area were announcing delays and closures. A list is available from Tribune-Review news partner WPXI.

In the Alle-Kiski Valley area, Apollo-Ridge and Freeport Area had issued two-hour delays, while the Armstrong School District is closed.

As of about 6:30 a.m., West Penn Power was reporting about 370 customers without power in Westmoreland County. Areas affected included Hempfield, Greensburg, Ligonier, Laurel Mountain, Derry and Unity. Power was expected to be restored between 8 and 9:30 a.m.

More than 600 outages were reported in Mercer County.

Steady rain is expected to end by 7 or 8 a.m., but isolated showers will continue through the day into Friday, Brown said.

The forecast high for Thursday is 39, with a low of 33, Brown said.