(File Photo: Source for Photo: In this drone image, snow blankets a neighborhood, Sunday, Dec. 25, 2022, in Cheektowaga, N.Y. Millions of people hunkered down against a deep freeze Sunday morning to ride out the frigid storm that has killed at least 24 people across the United States and is expected to claim more lives after trapping some residents inside houses with heaping snow drifts and knocking out power to several hundred thousand homes and businesses.(John Waller via AP)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) Allegheny County offices will be closed due to the severe weather conditions today, which includes non-essential functions like parks, facilities, and administrative offices.  county employees are encouraged to work remotely where possible and essential services are still functioning. President Judge Susan Evashavik DiLucente has also ordered the closure of all Divisions of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, all Magisterial District Courts in Allegheny County, and Pittsburgh Municipal Court for today. However, Arraignment Court will remain open. Emergency Protection from Abuse Orders may be obtained at Arraignment Court located in the Municipal Courts Building at 660 First Avenue, Pittsburgh. The Allegheny County Public Defender’s Office, the Department of Court Records, and the District Attorney’s Office will also be closed as a result of this order. The Allegheny County Sheriff’s Office will be operating critical functions but will be closed to the public. The Allegheny County Courthouse will be closed to the public as well, as will all other Allegheny County facilities. The Controller’s Office and the Treasurer Office will be closed to the public and will be working remotely. The call center of the Allegheny County Treasurer’s Office will remain open and staffed by calling (412) 350-4100. The Allegheny County Jail will also be closed to visitors. Winter shelter is open and people that are staying outside are strongly encouraged to come inside. Adults (without children) in need of shelter are encouraged to either visit Second Avenue Commons, 700 Second Avenue, Pittsburgh, or call the Allegheny Link. Families with children that are experiencing homelessness in Allegheny County should immediately call the Allegheny Link  at 1-866-730-2368. The main phone lines remain open, including 988 for crisis support and 211 for basic needs, which includes food and utilities.  Protective services operations remain active and can be reached by phone. You can contact 412-350-6905 to report abuse or neglect of an older adult and you can contact 412-473-2000 to report abuse or neglect of a child.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – This April 2, 2021, file photo shows bridges spanning the Allegheny River in downtown Pittsburgh. Republicans in Congress are making the politically brazen bet that it’s more advantageous to oppose President Joe Biden’s ambitious rebuild America agenda than to lend support for the costly $2.3 trillion undertaking for roads, bridges and other infrastructure investments. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) The City of Pittsburgh will have warming centers open today as the bitter cold temperatures continue. Four active living senior center locations will be open for those in need of an escape from the cold and they are as follows:

• Beechview Healthy Active Living Community Center | 1555 Broadway Avenue, 15216
  • This center will be open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Greenfield Healthy Active Living Community Center | 745 Greenfield Avenue, 15217
  • This center will be open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Sheraden Healthy Active Living Community Center | 720 Sherwood Avenue, 15204
  • This center will be open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• South Side Market House Healthy Active Living Community Center | 12th & Bingham Streets, 15203
  • This center is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Four recreation centers will also be open to help warm people up and they are as follows:

• Brookline | 1400 Oakridge Street, 15226
  • This center will be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
• Magee | 745 Greenfield Avenue, 15217
  • This center will be open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Phillips | 201 Parkfield Street, 15210
  • This center will be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
• Warrington | 329 Warrington Avenue, 15210
  • This center will be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Every other recreation center and senior living center in Allegheny County will be closed today.

(File Photo of Handcuffs)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Aliquippa, PA) Pennsylvania State Police in Beaver reported via release today that thirty-one-year-old Raymoane Richardson of Aliquippa was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol in Aliquippa on the night of November 29th, 2025. At 9:18 p.m., police conducted a traffic stop on the 2100 block of Sheffield Road and Richardson was arrested for driving under the influence during the stop. Charges against Richardson are pending. 

(File Photo: Source for Photo: A man digs a car out of the snow on Beacon Hill following a winter storm that dumped more than a foot of snow across the region, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

(AP) Many in the U.S. faced another night of below-freezing temperatures and no electricity after a colossal winter storm heaped more snow Monday on the Northeast and kept parts of the South coated in ice. At least 30 deaths were reported in states afflicted with severe cold.

Deep snow — over a foot (30 centimeters) extending in a 1,300-mile (2,100-kilometer) swath from Arkansas to New England — halted traffic, canceled flights and triggered wide school closures Monday. The National Weather Service said areas north of Pittsburgh got up to 20 inches (50 centimeters) of snow and faced wind chills as low as minus 25 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 31 degrees Celsius) late Monday into Tuesday.

The bitter cold afflicting two-thirds of the U.S. wasn’t going away. The weather service said Monday that a fresh influx of artic air is expected to sustain freezing temperatures in places already covered in snow and ice. And forecasters said it’s possible another winter storm could hit parts of the East Coast this weekend.

A rising death toll included two people run over by snowplows in Massachusetts and Ohio, fatal sledding accidents that killed teenagers in Arkansas and Texas, and a woman whose body was found covered in snow by police with bloodhounds after she was last seen leaving a Kansas bar. In New York City, officials said eight people were found dead outdoors in the course of the frigid weekend.

Hundreds of thousands without power

There were still more than 630,000 power outages in the nation Monday evening, according to poweroutage.com. Most of them were in the South, where weekend blasts of freezing rain caused tree limbs and power lines to snap, inflicting crippling outages on northern Mississippi and parts of Tennessee.

In Mississippi, officials scrambled to get cots, blankets, bottled water and generators to warming stations in hard-hit areas in the aftermath of the state’s worst ice storm since 1994. At least 14 homes, one business and 20 public roads had major damage, Gov. Tate Reeves said Monday evening.

The University of Mississippi, where most students hunkered down without power Monday, canceled classes for the entire week as its Oxford campus remained coated in treacherous ice. Oxford Mayor Robyn Tannehill said on social media that so many trees, limbs and power lines had fallen that “it looks like a tornado went down every street.”

A pair of burly, falling tree branches damaged real estate agent Tim Phillips’ new garage, broke a window and cut off power to his home in Oxford.

“It’s just one of those things that you try to prepare for,” Phillips said, “but this one was just unreal.”

The U.S. had more than 12,000 flight delays or cancellations nationwide Monday, according to flight tracker flightaware.com. On Sunday, 45% of U.S. flights got cancelled, making it the highest day for cancellations since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.

More light to moderate snow was forecast in New England through Monday evening.

New York City saw its snowiest day in years, with neighborhoods recording 8 to 15 inches (20 to 38 cm) of snow. Though public schools shut down, roughly 500,000 students were told to log in for online lessons Monday. The nation’s largest public school system saw snow days stripped away after remote learning gained traction during the coronavirus pandemic.

Bitter cold grips much of the nation

Meanwhile, bitter cold followed in the storm’s wake. Communities across the Midwest, South, and Northeast awakened Monday to subzero weather. The entire Lower 48 states were forecast to have their coldest average low temperature of minus 9.8 F (minus 12.3 C) since January 2014.

In the Nashville, Tennessee, area, electricity returned for thousands of homes and businesses Monday, while more than 170,000 others awoke bundled up in powerless homes after subfreezing temperatures overnight. Many hotels were sold out overnight to residents escaping dark and frigid homes.

Alex Murray booked a Nashville hotel room for his family to ensure they had a working freezer to preserve pumped breast milk to feed their 6-month-old daughter. Anticipating a long wait until power gets restored at his home, Murray planned to extend their hotel stay through Wednesday.

“I know there’s many people that may not be able to find a place or pay for a place or anything like that, or even travel,” Murray said Monday. “So, we were really fortunate.”

Storm leads to deaths in a number of states

In Emporia, Kansas, police found a 28-year-old teacher dead in the snow after she was seen leaving a bar without her coat and phone.

Police said snowplows backed into two people who died in Norwood, Massachusetts, and Dayton, Ohio. Arkansas and Texas reported two deaths apiece.

The cause of deaths for the eight people found outside in New York City as temperatures plunged between Saturday and Monday morning remained under investigation.

Officials reported four deaths in Tennessee, three deaths apiece in Louisiana and Pennsylvania; two deaths in Mississippi; and one each in New Jersey, South Carolina and Kentucky.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – A sign outside the Internal Revenue Service building in Washington, on May 4, 2021.
Effective immediately, the Internal Revenue Service will end its decades-old policy of making unannounced home and business visits — in a nod to worker safety and combatting scammers who pose as IRS agents. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Washington D.C.) The IRS opened the 2026 filing season today and started accepting and processing federal individual income tax returns for the tax year of 2025. The IRS is expecting about 164 million individual tax returns for the 2025 tax year to be filed ahead of the federal deadline of Wednesday, April 15th, 2026. IRS.gov is where taxpayers in Pennsylvania and beyond can find a range of filing options and tools to assist them in filing and preparing their tax returns. According to a release in Washington D.C. from the IRS, here is some more information about filing your taxes this year:

Get help preparing and filing electronically

• Filing electronically and choosing direct deposit remains the fastest way to receive a refund.
• IRS Free File, which you can access by clicking here, offers eligible taxpayers brand-name tax preparation software at no cost.
• Free File Fillable Forms, which you can access by clicking here, are available to taxpayers who are comfortable preparing and filing their own returns, regardless of income level.
• Volunteer Income Tax Assistance and Tax Counseling for the Elderly programs, which you can access by clicking here, offer free basic tax return preparation to qualified individuals.
• More than half of taxpayers use a tax professional to prepare and file their tax returns. The IRS encourages taxpayers to review tips for choosing a tax preparer and learn how to avoid unethical “ghost” return preparers, which you can find out about by clicking here.

Most refunds are issued within 21 days.

• Direct deposit is the fastest way to receive a refund. Additionally, in accordance with Executive Order 14247, which you can find out about by clicking here, the IRS began phasing out paper tax refund checks on September 30th, 2025, meaning most taxpayers must provide their routing and account numbers to receive refunds directly deposited into their bank accounts.
• Taxpayers can track refund status using Where’s My Refund? by clicking here, the IRS2Go app by clicking here, or their IRS Individual Online Account by clicking here.
• While the IRS issues most refunds in fewer than 21 days, some returns require additional review and may take longer.

EITC and ACTC refunds available by March 2nd

• The IRS expects most refunds for the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Additional Child Tax Credit to be available in bank accounts or on debit cards by March 2nd, 2026, for taxpayers who chose direct deposit and have no other issues with their returns. Some taxpayers may receive their refund earlier, depending on their financial institution. Where’s My Refund? will provide projected deposit dates for most early EITC/ACTC refund filers by February 21st, 2026.
• For more information and tools to help file a complete and accurate return, which you can find by clicking here and avoid errors that can delay refunds, visit IRS.gov.

(File Photo of the Mongotmery Locks and Dam)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Washington D.C.) According to a release from Washington D.C. from Congressman Chris Deluzio’s office, Deluzio (PA-17) celebrated today that funding for four of his community projects were signed into law, bringing more than $185 million in federal funds back to key projects in Western Pennsylvania. The single biggest item of those projects is funding to help modernize the Montgomery Locks and Dam along the Ohio River in Beaver County, along with other projects to fund local water infrastructure and police equipment. According to that same release from Deluzio’s office, the $185,356,000 in funding that was passed into law across the following four projects:  

• $183,829,000 for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ mega project to modernize the Montogomery Locks and Dam in Beaver County 

• $900,000 for the Municipal Water Authority of Aliquippa to purchase updated wastewater treatment equipment 

• $502,000 for Ross Township Police Department to purchase body-worn cameras 

• $125,000 for the Allegheny Valley Regional Police Department to purchase a police river patrol boat

(File Photo of a Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Car)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Hopewell Township, PA) Pennsylvania State Police in Beaver reported via release today that a man was charged after causing a single-vehicle crash in Hopewell Township on the early morning of January 17th, 2026. At approximately from 2:30 to 3 a.m., the male driver was driving on I-376 West before Exit 45, and he related to police that he hit a cable barrier after he lost control on black ice on the road. He also stated to police that he continued to Exit 45 and parked his vehicle in the Green Garden Plaza before he called for a ride. The man who was charged did not advise of any injuries on the scene of the crash and the vehicle that he was driving was not towed from the scene. 

(Photo Provided with Release Courtesy of AAA East Central)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) Gas prices are five cents lower in Western Pennsylvania this week at about $3.12 per gallon, according to AAA East Central’s Gas Price Report. The national average for a gallon of regular unleaded gas has gone up six cents over the past week to $2.88 as winter weather has affected most of the country. The report states that at this time a year ago the average price for a gallon of gas in Western Pennsylvania was around $3.52 and the average price that you can expect for a gallon of unleaded gas here in Beaver County is about $3.15. According to a release from AAA East Central and AAA East Central’s Gas Price Report, here are the average price of unleaded self-serve gasoline this week in various areas:

$3.156      Altoona
$3.151      Beaver
$3.275      Bradford
$2.968      Brookville
$3.118      Butler
$3.095      Clarion
$3.159      DuBois
$3.066      Erie
$3.093      Greensburg
$3.096      Indiana
$3.099      Jeannette
$3.263      Kittanning
$3.095      Latrobe
$3.147      Meadville
$3.118      Mercer
$2.968      New Castle
$3.126      New Kensington
$3.159      Oil City
$3.102      Pittsburgh
$2.928      Sharon
$3.093      Uniontown
$3.422      Warren
$3.112      Washington

(File Photo of a Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Car)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Raccoon Township, PA) Pennsylvania State Police in Beaver reported via release today that two people were extracted from a vehicle after a single-vehicle crash occurred in Raccoon Township on Wednesday evening. At approximately 9:18 p.m., fifty-two-year-old Juan Murillo Zaragoza was driving on Ewing Hill Road when the road conditions were extremely slippery and icy. Murillo Zaragoza and thirty-six-year-old Porfilo Pacheco-Guatemala of Monaca were extracted from the vehicle they were inside by the Raccoon Volunteer Fire Department after they crashed along 116 Ewing Hill Road.  

January 27th, 2026