Pittsburgh/Western PA Spring 2023 Discussion

[TheClimateChanger]

19 minutes ago, Ahoff said:

5 min obs are up to 73 at KPIT, still running 3 degrees ahead of yesterday at the same time, so we'll see.

10 am update: 73 at PIT, but 79 at YNG, 80 at DUJ and 79 at BFD. The latter sites are 1800' and 2100' respectively. 

[TimB]

3 minutes ago, TheClimateChanger said:

What I don't understand is this new pattern where places further north are hotter than Pittsburgh? These places used to be much colder than Pittsburgh year round, and that no longer appears to be the case in the summertime.

DuBois reached 88F yesterday, breaking the record of 86F set in 1969. It looks like a near certainty to reach 90F+ today. The earliest 90F reading in DuBois was on June 8, 1968.

Similarly, Bradford reached 86F yesterday, tying the record set just last year. Probably won't hit 90F but could come close. The earliest 90F reading at Bradford occurred just last year on June 16th. There were two 90+ readings at BFD last year (including an incredible 93F on June 22, which is one of the hotter readings ever to occur at the site). Prior to last year, it had never reached 90F+ at BFD before the month of July (dating back to 1957).

Interestingly, PIT topped out at just 87 on that 6/8/1968 day you reference. That’s also the year it took us the longest to get our first 80 of the year, on June 5th.

[Ahoff]

13 minutes ago, TheClimateChanger said:

10 am update: 73 at PIT, but 79 at YNG, 80 at DUJ and 79 at BFD. The latter sites are 1800' and 2100' respectively. 

Perfectly normal for Pittsburgh.

[TimB]

Continuing to run 3-4 degrees ahead of yesterday. Maybe 90 is within reach?

[Ahoff]

The 1pm update is 85, 5 degrees ahead of yesterday.  We might make it.

If we had dew points in the 60s like we normally do with 90 weather, I'd say we wouldn't make it as of now, but the dew point being around 55 might allow us some wiggle room.

[TheClimateChanger]

Looks like the DUJ stopped reporting at 10:53 AM, with a temperature of 84F. So maybe the daily record and earliest 90F reading are safe there after all.

[Ahoff]

Dew points back into the 40s.

[Ahoff]

Might have made it.  The 5 min says it hit 90, but the it was an 89.6, so I imagine they'd do what happened yesterday and round down.  Still time though to officially get there.

[TimB]

3 hours ago, TheClimateChanger said:

Looks like the DUJ stopped reporting at 10:53 AM, with a temperature of 84F. So maybe the daily record and earliest 90F reading are safe there after all.

DUJ started reporting again, just in time to hit 91.

[TimB]

2 hours ago, Ahoff said:

Might have made it.  The 5 min says it hit 90, but the it was an 89.6, so I imagine they'd do what happened yesterday and round down.  Still time though to officially get there.

As of 5pm the high was 89. But all of the 5 min obs since 5pm have been 90 so we just may make it.

[Ahoff]

33 minutes ago, TimB said:

As of 5pm the high was 89. But all of the 5 min obs since 5pm have been 90 so we just may make it.

It’ll be close.  But I know what to expect, lol.

[TheClimateChanger]

Looks like we may get into a smokier regime next week as northwest flow filters in filthy air from fires all across Canada.

[TimB]

The high was….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

89.

[Ahoff]

28 minutes ago, TimB said:

The high was….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

89.

Typical

[TimB]

AGC didn’t even hit 90.

[meatwad]

1 hour ago, TimB said:

The high was….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

89.

The clouds prevented it from reaching 90+ today. 

[TheClimateChanger]

Euro wants to tank our dewpoint down into the 20s on Monday, and then keep it the 30s all week. At 18z Monday, the 12z run of the Euro had a 24 degree dewpoint, while the 18z GFS shows 32 degrees at the same time. This is like summer of yesteryear stuff right here.

[KPITSnow]

1 hour ago, TheClimateChanger said:

Euro wants to tank our dewpoint down into the 20s on Monday, and then keep it the 30s all week. At 18z Monday, the 12z run of the Euro had a 24 degree dewpoint, while the 18z GFS shows 32 degrees at the same time. This is like summer of yesteryear stuff right here.

I still don’t think I can remember the last time we had highs in the upper 80’s with few points in the 50’s and 40’s, or hell 30’s 

[TheClimateChanger]

Looks like a very thick pall of smoke will be pushing into our area tomorrow evening. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a thick pall of smoke in this area. It’s low too - mostly around 6,000 feet AGL, so it’s not going to be 20k feet plus like the May events.
 

[Ahoff]

13 hours ago, meatwad said:

The clouds prevented it from reaching 90+ today. 

There were hardly any clouds anywhere near where I was.  Was there some smoke higher up?

I really can't imagine we didn't hit 90.

[Ahoff]

Although, we are running 5 degrees warmer than yesterday, lol.

I'm sure clouds though will halt us today too.

[TimB]

1 hour ago, Ahoff said:

There were hardly any clouds anywhere near where I was.  Was there some smoke higher up?

I really can't imagine we didn't hit 90.

I remember seeing a bit of cumulus develop in my area in the afternoon. If that happened at the airport, I could see where temps could have stalled a bit.

 

Edit: you can see it on the 5-min obs during the hottest part of the day.
 

3:30-4:30 pm or so was observing BKN065, or 60-90% cloud cover at 6500 feet.

[TheClimateChanger]

Death band right over head tomorrow afternoon. Where was this setup in the winter?

[Ahoff]

1 hour ago, TheClimateChanger said:

Death band right over head tomorrow afternoon. Where was this setup in the winter?

Would that cause precip if it’s just smoke?

[Ahoff]

Looks like 5 min intervals peaked at 89.6 again, which I find hard to believe that’s where they stop all the time.  Probably another 89-er.

[meatwad]

First 90 of the summer. 

[TimB]

Looks like PIT recorded only a trace, so the days without measurable precip streak has reached 14.

[Ahoff]

6 hours ago, TimB said:

Looks like PIT recorded only a trace, so the days without measurable precip streak has reached 14.

Is a trace considered measurable?  I thought measurable was over a trace, and a trace was like just observed precip.  Like flurries of snow aren’t measured, but a trace.

[TimB]

4 minutes ago, Ahoff said:

Is a trace considered measurable?  I thought measurable was over a trace, and a trace was like just observed precip.  Like flurries of snow aren’t measured, but a trace.

Traces are not measurable. So they just saw a few drops of rain at some point. Hence the dry streak is still alive.

[TimB]

On 5/31/2023 at 10:13 PM, TheClimateChanger said:

Dewpoint of 33F at 7 pm is about as low as it gets this time of the year. Sorry for including June 1. When I selected start and end date of 5/31, it ran the numbers for the entire year. Just missed the lowest for that hour by two degrees. The dewpoint was 31F at 7 pm on May 31, 1984.

Was thinking about this, as dewpoints are once again about as low as they can go, with the last hour coming in at 31. We actually had a dewpoint of 28 on the evening of June 19th last year, which seems pretty impressive. The current obs comes in second for lowest June dewpoint this century.