Erica's Answer:
It's about 4 miles west of State College. The overnight lows in the Barrens are consistently the coldest in Pennsylvania, often dropping 10, 20, even 30 degrees colder than in the neighboring town of State College. The Barrens is an especially cold area for a few reasons. First, it is a low-lying area in between two mountain slopes, which allows colder mountain air to sink down into the valley. Second, the soil in the Barrens is sandy and rocky, so the daytime heat exits the atmosphere quickly at night. Another factor is the lack of vegetation. Trees and plants hold on to heat, whereas bare soil lets the heat radiate back upward into the atmosphere. My research did find that Lopez, PA usually has the highest snowfall of anywhere in Eastern Pennsylvania.- Erica
