Week, New Year Impacted by Weather
(Bruce Yarnall photo)
Early Monday morning, the Stars and Stripes were “hanging on for dear life” at the Barnesville Post Office due to high winds overnight. Later that day, the flag was lowered to half staff following the death of former President Jimmy Carter.
The last few days of 2024 and the start of 2025 were impacted by Mother Nature. Sunday as high winds at times exceeded 60 mph in the Barnesville area, it put an early end to the “Christmas in the Park Displays”. The displays were intended to remain in place through January 2.
Monday morning, Barnesville Chamber issued the following statement:
“Christmas at the Park – Well, Mother Nature decided to get a little too festive last night, and those crazy winds wrecked the displays at the park. Unfortunately, that means the displays are now closed for good. We were going to keep them up till Jan 2, but I guess the weather had other plans”.
(Fairview VFD/EMS Photo)
Sunday night, the Fairview VFD/EMS was called out to assist moving trees and debris off of an area road where a tree fell on the highway.
As a preemptive measure, organizers of the Barnesville Mobile Food Market cancelled the monthly free food give away at the Barnesville Depot that was scheduled to take place Friday morning. In a statement, Jean Cooper of the market posted “Barnesville Mobile Market Canceled for Friday Jan. 3 due to cold, snow and wind. We plan on being back on Feb. 7.”
The Belmont County Emergency Management Agency opened warming centers Thursday at Barnesville, Bethesda, Centerville, Flushing, Lafferty and Somerton. Residents are advised to call centers so that arrangements may be made to open the center.” A complete list of centers is posted on the agency’s Facebook page.
(Facebook image)
Friday’s snowfall as shown in this Somerton resident’s post on social media amounted to several inches. Roadways were treacherous early in the morning before road crews treated them.
Sunday and Monday the weather is expected to be worse with eastern Ohio expected to receive snow or possibly heavy freezing rain or sleet depending on the location of the front that will impact residents from St. Louis to the east coast according to Murray Stafford’s Ohio Valley Weather.
