Relentless Winter Freeze Continues: Your Week

And now for something completely different … the National Weather Service is calling for a chance of snow showers on Monday morning.

Yep, the relentless winter continues this week, though the good news is that—after Monday—the forecast looks snow free until Saturday, anyway.

The bad news is that there seems to be no relief in sight in terms of temperatures, which the weather services advises could lead to increasing and thickening river ice, which could cause jams, which could cause flooding.

After a relatively reasonable high of 31 degrees Monday, the temperature will fall and the wind will accelerate to gusts as high as 33 mph, producing wind chills of about -10 overnight.

On Tuesday, the high temperature is expected to be 16, with a wind chill of -14.

Here’s what else is happening in Bethlehem this week:

• City Council will be meeting twice this week—at 7 p.m. Monday and again on Thursday—to review and possibly pick someone to replace new Mayor Bob Donchez as a council colleague. We explain the process and identify the 15 applying candidates here.

• The Bethlehem Area School Board meets in regular session at 7 p.m. Monday at East Hills Middle School. Find the agenda here.

• Cancelled last week because of snow, the main branch of the Bethlehem Area Public Library will again try to host a session on negotiating the new health insurance landscape under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. The health insurance marketplace, timelines for implementation, Medicaid expansion, and essential health benefits packages will be discussed. My Lien Nguyen, a certified trainer from the Pennsylvania Health Access Network, is the speaker.

• Wednesday is report card day in Bethlehem Area elementary and middle schools. Thursday is report card day at Liberty and Freedom high schools.