The most significant Christmas Day winter storm since 1966 crippled the Poconos, brought heavy snow to the Lehigh Valley, Berks County and the far northern suburbs of Philadelphia and a wintry mix to the rest of the Philadelphia suburbs. Precipitation began as light snow on Christmas Eve. As the northeaster moved northeast along the eastern seaboard, warmer air from the Atlantic and the south warmed the air between 3,000 and 8,000 feet above ground level. This changed precipitation over to sleet and light freezing rain. As warmer air moved in near the ground precipitation changed to plain rain across much of the Philadelphia northwest suburbs by daybreak on Christmas Day and by mid-morning in the Lehigh Valley and Berks County. In the Poconos, most temperatures remained below freezing and around two-tenths of an inch of ice accrued on exposed surfaces. The northeaster was in the process of intensifying rapidly along the Middle Atlantic seaboard and both its precipitation intensity and coverage increased rapidly across Eastern Pennsylvania during the second half of the morning. As precipitation intensity increased and winds started to shift from the northeast to north, precipitation started to change to all snow. This began in the Poconos by 1030 a.m. EST and moved southeast during the remaining daylight hours across the rest of the state. Precipitation changed back to snow around 11 am EST in the Lehigh Valley and Berks County and between 11 a.m. and Noon EST in the Philadelphia northwest suburbs. The heaviest snow fell between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. EST and snowfall rates in parts of the Poconos averaged two inches per hour. The snow ended during the evening, except overnight in the Poconos. The combination of freezing rain, sleet and heavy wet snow brought down a plethora of trees, tree limbs and power lines from Berks and Schuylkill Counties northeast through the Poconos. About 225,000 Pennsylvania Power and Light (PPL) and Metropolitan Edison customers lost power. The 175,000 outages to PPL customers was the second worst on record only surpassed by Hurricane Floyd. Huge trees snapped like twigs and even utility poles snapped. Thousands of trees were knocked down.  Entire sections of new lines, poles and transformers had to be replaced. The restoration process was hindered because many of the outages were in remote areas and the smaller roads were not plowed. In addition, trees continued to fall through the weekend (28th and 29th) and created new outages. Repair crews from as far away as Maryland, New York and western Pennsylvania helped with the restoration process. Entire sections of Interstates 80, 81, 84 and 380 were closed. Interstate 80 was closed at the New Jersey State border. In Carbon County, a state of emergency was declared on Christmas Day and was not lifted until December 29th. Twice the county had to hand emergency response calls to Monroe County. All fire department and ambulance personnel were placed on stand-by. Power was restored for good at the county emergency services during the evening of the 27th. Shelters were opened in five Carbon County townships. Many people resorted to placing snow in their refrigerators to keep food cold and melting snow on stove tops to flush toilets. U.S. Route 209 was closed between Lansford and Nesquehoning because of downed trees. Businesses in Jim Thorpe were closed through the 28th. About 31,000 Carbon County residents lost power. The number was down to 7,700 the evening of the 27th and 1,400 the evening of the 29th (all in the Panther Valley). Power was completely restored on the 30th. In Monroe County, the southern and western parts of the county were hit the hardest. About 16,000 county residents lost power. All power was restored on the 27th with the last restoration in the Pocono Wild Haven Estate in Wooddale. Many vehicles were abandoned and left on roadways. Many roads were impassable during the height of the storm. All county offices were closed on the 26th. The 21 inches of snow in Tobyhanna was a one day December record.  In Berks County 30,000 homes and businesses lost power, two-thirds of them in Reading. Other hard hit municipalities were Sinking Spring, Cumru, Hamburg, Fleetwood and Oley. Several shelters were opened throughout the county. The Red Cross also sent people without power to hotels. All power was restored by the morning of the 29th. Two men in the county died shoveling snow. One was a 57-year-old in Muhlenberg Township and the other was a 78-year-old in Sinking Spring. In the Lehigh Valley, Interstate 78 was plagued with vehicles stuck in snow. There were multiple minor collisions on U.S. Route 22 as well as Pennsylvania State Routes 33 and 248. About 5,600 homes and businesses lost power in the valley mainly in Allentown, Emmaus, Salisbury and South Whitehall Townships. In the Philadelphia suburbs the quick accumulation of snow led to many accidents. Vehicles were unable to ascend hills and many slipped and slid into ditches. By the middle of the afternoon there were over 100 reported accidents in Bucks County. Strong winds and sleet forced the cancellation of the annual re-enactment of Washington crossing the Delaware River.  Specific accumulations included 21 inches in Tobyhanna (Monroe County), 19 inches in Albrightsville (Carbon County) and Blakeslee (Monroe County), 14.8 inches in Pocono Summit (Monroe County), 14 inches in Beltzville (Carbon County), 13 inches in Jim Thorpe (Carbon County) and Vinemont (Berks County), 12 inches in Mohnton (Berks County), 10.8 inches in East Stroudsburg (Monroe County), 10 inches in Honeybrook (Chester County), 8 inches in Morgantown (Berks County) and Schnecksville (Lehigh County), 7.5 inches in Perkasie (Bucks County), 7.4 inches in Williams Township (Northampton County), 7.2 inches at the Lehigh Valley International Airport, 7 inches in Reading (Berks County), 6.6 inches in Bath (Northampton County), 6 inches in Easton (Northampton County), 5.2 inches in Glenmoore (Chester County), 4.9 inches in Palm (Montgomery County), 4.8 inches in Doylestown (Bucks County), 3.0 inches in Southampton (Bucks County), 2.7 inches in Green Lane (Montgomery County) and 1 inch in Valley Forge (Chester County)The northeaster that produced the tidal flooding moved from Mississippi the morning of the 24th to near Norfolk the morning of the 25th to just west of Atlantic City during the afternoon of the 25th to south of Nova Scotia the morning of the 26th.

Winter Storm in MONROE, PENNSYLVANIA
From 24-DEC-02 20:00:00 to 26-DEC-02 03:00:00 (EST)
Property damage: 15K
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER

Winter Weather in BUCKS, PENNSYLVANIA
From 24-DEC-02 22:30:00 to 25-DEC-02 23:59:00 (EST)
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER

Winter Storm in NORTHAMPTON, PENNSYLVANIA
From 24-DEC-02 21:00:00 to 25-DEC-02 21:00:00 (EST)
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER

Winter Weather in CHESTER, PENNSYLVANIA
From 24-DEC-02 22:00:00 to 25-DEC-02 23:00:00 (EST)
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER

Winter Weather in MONTGOMERY, PENNSYLVANIA
From 24-DEC-02 22:00:00 to 25-DEC-02 23:00:00 (EST)
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER

Winter Storm in BERKS, PENNSYLVANIA
From 24-DEC-02 20:00:00 to 25-DEC-02 19:00:00 (EST)
Property damage: 25K
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER

Winter Storm in CARBON, PENNSYLVANIA
From 24-DEC-02 22:00:00 to 26-DEC-02 03:00:00 (EST)
Property damage: 60K
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER

Winter Storm in LEHIGH, PENNSYLVANIA
From 24-DEC-02 20:30:00 to 25-DEC-02 20:30:00 (EST)
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER