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Pittsburgh/Western PA Spring 2024


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On 4/27/2024 at 10:00 AM, TimB said:

Probably going to come down to Tuesday. Rain seems to be done for today and we still need 0.19” to set that record. So one more shot at this. It’s actually incredible that we could fall short when we only needed half an inch of rain with 16 days left in the month.

Second half of April has actually been among the driest of record thus far.

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13 minutes ago, TheClimateChanger said:

Second half of April has actually been among the driest of record thus far.

Another one I want your opinion on: are the record highs of 95 on May 2 and 3, 1887 even possibly legitimate? It looks like it was cool at the coast, and we were 10+ degrees warmer than both Baltimore/DC and Columbus/Cincinnati on those dates. These can’t possibly be real.

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1 minute ago, TheClimateChanger said:

Yeah, those sure seem bogus. Looks like the heat wave only hit Pittsburgh. :arrowhead:

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The Buffalo and Erie data might lend a little support to the idea that it was hot that day. (The 2nd anyway).

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7 minutes ago, TimB said:

The Buffalo and Erie data might lend a little support to the idea that it was hot that day. 

It was a warm day but the 95F readings look to be exaggerated. I just went through the Ohio weather review for May 1887, and the hottest on those dates in the entire state was 90.6F on the 2nd and 92.5F on the 3rd in Meigs County (far south). No other station was 90F or better on either date. The second hottest was also the closest to Pittsburgh, in Jefferson County at 89.0F and 88.0F. All of the other sites in eastern Ohio were mainly in the mid 80s. Given the data, a 90/91F might be believable in the urban area, but 95F seems like a warm biased reading.

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On 4/28/2024 at 5:46 PM, KPITSnow said:

This is way too hot way too early. Almost 90 tomorrow? Give me a break 

Yeah, maybe I'm misremembering, but I never recall sustained 70s and 80s like this until June growing up. I remember going up to Erie regularly on Memorial Day and it would be freezing every time.  Like 55F and cold breeze off the frigid water.

What I don't get is there's many - not in this thread - but elsewhere saying this is normal April weather. I don't get it. And don't get me started on the Redditors still complaining about clouds. I mean Pittsburgh basically has a 20th century northern Sun Belt climate now, except with somewhat milder summers.

These are through yesterday. Will probably come up a bit when today is factored in. Can you imagine if they still took temperature records downtown? Probably on par with mid to late 20th Century Knoxville over the past two years.

PIT

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AGC

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Bristol / Johnson City, Tennessee (1956-1985)

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5 hours ago, TimB said:

Line of showers is dying. We’re not going to have our wettest April on record. Not complaining, that’s for sure. Just surprised.

Purposely canceled my golf plans because last night the simulated radar and short term guidance showed more rain than what we got. 

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April finished off as 5th warmest and 2nd wettest on record [3rd wettest if you include the Allegheny Arsenal records back to 1836 - there was reportedly over 9 inches in 1852]. While the month finished off in a solid 5th place for temperature, it was quite close to the record high, finishing just 0.4F below 2017.

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Precipitation fell in an interesting pattern, with the first half of the month easily the wettest on record. The second half of the month was actually the 7th driest such period with just 0.30" of precipitation.

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For the first 1/3 of the year, the mean temperature is 3rd warmest in the threaded record. Easily warmest at the airport site, being nearly a full degree warmer than 2017.

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The average high temperature for the year to date is 2nd warmest in the threaded record.

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33 minutes ago, TheClimateChanger said:

April finished off as 5th warmest and 2nd wettest on record [3rd wettest if you include the Allegheny Arsenal records back to 1836 - there was reportedly over 9 inches in 1852]. While the month finished off in a solid 5th place for temperature, it was quite close to the record high, finishing just 0.4F below 2017.

image.png.99a30d91f195ba008fe3e770a4c17aee.png

Precipitation fell in an interesting pattern, with the first half of the month easily the wettest on record. The second half of the month was actually the 7th driest such period with just 0.30" of precipitation.

image.png.212d84bb97904480c97467b3251b4d2e.png

For the first 1/3 of the year, the mean temperature is 3rd warmest in the threaded record. Easily warmest at the airport site, being nearly a full degree warmer than 2017.

image.png.a2b38a892cc96b169e1aaa739490331c.png

The average high temperature for the year to date is 2nd warmest in the threaded record.

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Interesting to see 1942 in the dry 2nd halves of April. It just popped up on a list I ran for number of 80 degree days through May 3rd. If we get to 80 today, tomorrow and Friday, we’ll be at 9 days. The only year with more through 5/3 was 1942, with 11. Eight of those days occurred during the aforementioned dry 2nd half of April. Interestingly, the first half of April 1942 was the last time before the two days this year that we had 1.6” or more of precip on any April day.41748F34-FD53-471A-AADE-3C32F8CFB970.jpeg.2efcf63247af643f3b7347ba24dd3b35.jpeg

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Really amazing that the 2nd half of April recorded less than .3” of rain and we still ended up among the wettest April’s.  Was a really nasty first half, nice second half.

 

Wonder if we could see our 90s May drought end this year.

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Currently, second warmest year to date in the threaded record for the Pittsburgh area. I remember looking at these numbers and the old city office records seemed insurmountable. Like 1998 was widely regarded as the hottest year ever and we weren't even close. Yet here we are, in the year of our Lord 2024, and right near the top of those. Very impressive IMO.

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Actually in first place for average high temperature year to date. Unlike a lot of locations, PIT actually does a little better on high temperatures relative to low temperatures since the latter were more impacted by the urban heat island effect at the downtown office site.

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I will say it's a bit harder to keep pace with the old years in the warm season, as the warm bias has a greater impact on the rankings during that period when seasonal variability is at its annual minimum. But it does look like the next week or so should be well above normal on the whole.

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CPC is looking like cooler than average from the 10th through the end of the month (from their May 3rd prediction).  In direct contradiction to their April 30th prediction of an above normal May.

We'll see how it shakes out.

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30 minutes ago, Ahoff said:

CPC is looking like cooler than average from the 10th through the end of the month (from their May 3rd prediction).  In direct contradiction to their April 30th prediction of an above normal May.

We'll see how it shakes out.

Not to be argumentative, but it’s been nearly 10F warmer than normal so far. Doesn’t look to change much by the 10th. If it’s +10F on the 10th, it would need to average nearly 5F below normal the rest of the month just to hit normal. So both of those forecasts could be correct.

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1 minute ago, TheClimateChanger said:

Not to be argumentative, but it’s been nearly 10F warmer than normal so far. Doesn’t look to change much by the 10th. If it’s +10F on the 10th, it would need to average nearly 5F below normal the rest of the month just to hit normal. So both of those forecasts could be correct.

Our average high this time of year is around 70, This week doesn't really look 10 above average.  And if a majority of them month is below average, in my eyes it's below average, lol.

I doubt it will be three weeks of below average though.  Honestly, they shouldn't even put out those long range predictions, they almost always change.

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On 5/4/2024 at 1:36 AM, PghPirates27 said:

Damn love this info keep it up. Any info on the lows? Feel like the diurnal temp is lower than usual. 

I've been feeling this one, usually this time of year you can cool down in the evening / overnight. Couple of borderline uncomfortable nights the last week or two, still holding off turning the AC on.

On a side note, started putting in some of the garden, started a bunch of stuff from seed in March, but they've been outside and growing crazy and quickly exceeding the pots, likely due to this warmth. Assume now we will get several hard freezes in mid May. :lol:

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Looks like that was the first or second recorded tornado to touchdown in Hancock County. Not sure whether that 1990 tornado touched down in the county. The NWS PBZ site is ambiguous, with some data showing 0 and some showing 1 prior tornado. There's actually a lot of issues with this, with the map showing Ohio County with 0, and the table showing Brooke County with 0. The map is only updated through 2020, there has been at least 1 tornado in Ohio County since then. And Brooke County has had at least 1 tornado. The table appears to have juxtaposed the data from Brooke & Ohio, so it looks like every county in the CWA has now had at least one tornado.

Obviously, the biggest reason the W. Va. panhandle counties have so few reported tornadoes is due to their small area. Although there does seem to be fewer in eastern Ohio there as well. Not sure if it's population or perhaps the rough terrain of the Ohio River Valley causing a relative minimum.

Link: NWS Pittsburgh Severe Weather Climatology

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Allegheny County with an EF1.

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
National Weather Service PITTSBURGH PA
339 PM EDT Wed May 8 2024

...NWS Damage Survey for May 8th 2024 Findlay Township Tornado Event...

.Findlay Township tornado...

Rating:                 EF1
Estimated Peak Wind:    105 mph
Path Length /statute/:  0.20 miles
Path Width /maximum/:   150 yards
Fatalities:             0
Injuries:               0

Start Date:             05/08/2024
Start Time:             01:49 AM EDT
Start Location:         3 ENE Imperial-Enlow / Allegheny County / PA
Start Lat/Lon:          40.4623 / -80.1968

End Date:               05/08/2024
End Time:               01:50 AM EDT
End Location:           3 ENE Imperial-Enlow / Allegheny County / PA
End Lat/Lon:            40.4607 / -80.1936

Survey Summary:
A storm survey performed by the National Weather Service
confirmed that a brief EF1 tornado, with maximum winds of
105 MPH, occurred near Aten Road in Findlay Township, just west
of I-376.

The tornado touched down north of Aten Road, where a
trailer on blocks in a parking lot was overturned, with some tree
damage nearby. The tornado then progressed southeast, snapping at
least 15-20 trees along the northern side of Aten Road. This area
represented the strongest damage, where the 105 MPH wind was
assigned. 

A nearby outbuilding lost a metal roof in several
pieces. One portion fell on the interstate, while another blew
over the interstate and landed roughly a quarter-mile downwind.
The tornado caused additional tree damage near the Edgeworth
Security and Marriot hotel buildings.  The tornado likely then
lifted, as no other appreciable damage was noted other than the
previously noted roof pieces that were blown downstream.

&&
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