From left: Jenna Foust, 13, Hannah Evans, 12, and Kayden Corson, 14, make their way along Eighth Street on Wednesday looking for opportunities to make some money shoveling snow for residents. The trio added that they were shoveling snow for free for older residents. Mirror photo by Gary M. Baranec

A fierce snowstorm — with the unassuming name of Toby — marked the second day of spring, with Altoona getting the most snow since the 1993 storm, known as the Great Blizzard of 1993 or No Name Storm.

Winter Storm Toby, the fourth nor’easter in less than three weeks, dropped 10 to 12 inches of snow in the Altoona area by mid-afternoon, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Aaron Tyburski.

Last March, the Altoona area recorded about 6 inches of snow.

The Sinking Valley area and Windber, in Somerset County, had about 11 inches of snow, Tyburski said.

Carl Erickson, senior meteorologist at AccuWeather, said there was less snow in the northern part of the county, with 6 to

7 inches of snow in the Tyrone area and 4 to 5 inches in State College. There were “heavy amounts off to the southeast” toward Adams, southern Huntingdon, York and Lancaster counties, which saw more than a foot of snow.

Various institutions and businesses were impacted by Wednesday’s weather, some closing due to conditions, while others took advantage of the precipitation.

The Logan Valley Mall, Penn State Altoona and the PennDOT driver’s license center at 1738 Ninth Ave. were among those that shut down Wednesday.

PennDOT also temporarily lowered the speed limit to 45 mph along much of the Pennsylvania Turnpike “due to weather-related roadway conditions,” as stated in a travel advisory.

Because of several reports of car crashes, including a rollover accident along the 3400 block of Sixth Avenue near Frosty Cow Soft Serve, PennDOT reminded drivers to always travel at a safe speed for weather conditions, to never pass a truck that is actively plowing or spreading salt and to always allow plenty of space when driving near plow trucks.

Penn State Altoona canceled all university activities and classes Wednesday. Only essential services such as housing, food services and maintenance remained open.

Wednesday was Penn State Altoona’s second snow day closure for the academic year. The campus’ first snow day was Feb. 7.

Michael Baronner, head groundskeeper at Penn State Altoona, was one of the few university staff members working Wednesday.

“We have eight machines: four plow trucks and four tractors or Bobcats. So it’s all hands on deck. The big thing is to quickly get the parking lots opened up and the roads salted,” he said.

“The beauty of it is there aren’t many people here — cars or pedestrians — to get in your way of plowing,” Baronner said. “A day like today, we’ll plow the same area four or five times because it’s coming down so hard.”

Other businesses such as Mallow’s Hardware and Blue Knob All Seasons Resort are benefitting from the weather.

Susan Kimberly, one of the owners of Mallow’s Hardware, said the store was very busy selling salt and other ice melting products, merchandise for snow blowers, shovels and car brushes.

“This time of year, unless we get bad weather, it’s sort of slow,” Kimberly said Wednesday. “It’s definitely been busier today.” The hardware store keeps ice melting items on hand year-round, even in the summertime.

“A lot of universities and businesses have run out of stuff at this point. Penn State was just in here getting Ice Melt,” Kimberly said.

The Blue Knob resort also will benefit from the snow. It is reopening at noon today, a day earlier than anticipated.

Wednesday afternoon, Gov. Tom Wolf said more than 450 Pennsylvania National Guard soldiers would remain on standby and are staged for possible missions throughout Wednesday night.

Wolf said Wednesday afternoon that snow is expected to continue through the night and into early Thursday morning. He said residents — especially those in the southern and eastern portions of the commonwealth — should continue to avoid unnecessary travel.

Tyburski said the National Weather Service expects temperatures to rise in the coming days and melt the snow.

Mirror Staff Writer Shen Wu Tan is at 946-7457.