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Pittsburgh/Western PA Spring 2023 Discussion


Ahoff
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38 minutes ago, Ahoff said:

Is there anywhere that talks about our longest dry spells?  Watching the news they're showing no rain through at least next Thursday, that should put us around two weeks of no rain.

Just curious, never saw any stats on that.

Record is 26 days in Oct-Nov 1874, followed by 25 days in Aug-Sept 1995. There are about 70 dry spells of 14+ days on record, most of them occurring in the fall. Now if we’re talking spring dry spells, that 14 day dry spell in May 2021 was actually the longest spring dry spell in almost 80 years.

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52 minutes ago, TimB said:

Record is 26 days in Oct-Nov 1874, followed by 25 days in Aug-Sept 1995. There are about 70 dry spells of 14+ days on record, most of them occurring in the fall. Now if we’re talking spring dry spells, that 14 day dry spell in May 2021 was actually the longest spring dry spell in almost 80 years.

Interesting.  That Spring dry spell record could fall.

 

Where did you get this information, would be interested to poke around with it?

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20 minutes ago, Ahoff said:

This is a good website.  Thank you.

I often find myself wondering “how common or rare is it to be this warm or cold or wet or dry or snowy or snowless” and that place usually has the tools I need to answer that question.

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5 hours ago, TimB said:

Our first GFS clown range triple digits of the season appeared this morning.

When is the last time PIT hit 100F?  I think the last time I can remember temps that high out here was like 2012 or 2013.  I lived in Morgantown back then and we did manage to go over 100F.

But I think that's it.  Seems pretty rare for PIT to go up there.  I feel like we haven't even had that many serious heat waves over the last decade.  Perhaps I'm used to worse summers coming from Philly.

 

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1 hour ago, jwilson said:

When is the last time PIT hit 100F?  I think the last time I can remember temps that high out here was like 2012 or 2013.  I lived in Morgantown back then and we did manage to go over 100F.

But I think that's it.  Seems pretty rare for PIT to go up there.  I feel like we haven't even had that many serious heat waves over the last decade.  Perhaps I'm used to worse summers coming from Philly.

 

July 1995 was the official last 100 reading for Pittsburgh.  We got close in 2012 with a 98 degree reading in July.

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1 hour ago, jwilson said:

When is the last time PIT hit 100F?  I think the last time I can remember temps that high out here was like 2012 or 2013.  I lived in Morgantown back then and we did manage to go over 100F.

But I think that's it.  Seems pretty rare for PIT to go up there.  I feel like we haven't even had that many serious heat waves over the last decade.  Perhaps I'm used to worse summers coming from Philly.

 

 

10 minutes ago, Ahoff said:

July 1995 was the official last 100 reading for Pittsburgh.  We got close in 2012 with a 98 degree reading in July.

I’ll add that the period from 1995-2012 is the longest Pittsburgh has ever gone without reaching 97 or higher. And now we’re already up to 11 years again.

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This heat is going to be a rarity, as usually 90 means 65 plus dew points. It isn’t forecast to get over 50 really in this timeframe and honestly it’s the weather I’d expect in flagstaff az not here.

I would also think there is a rather high fire risk incoming. It’s been dry, and you’re looking at 90 degree temps, 40 degree temps, and a fairly consistent 10mph breeze. 

 

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11 minutes ago, Ahoff said:

Interestingly, the Euro now towards the end of next week wants to pump in the heat again.  GFS showed 100s for around the 13th yesterday (gone today).  Euro is in the upper 90s for the 9th.

Overdone, likely, but something to watch, maybe?

Definitely something to watch. The cool period next week has completely disappeared from the Euro. It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out.

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5 minutes ago, TimB said:

Definitely something to watch. The cool period next week has completely disappeared from the Euro. It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out.

While the GFS has a very pronounced cool period.  Wild swings.  I'd side more with a more conservative version of the Euro at this point.  Not as warm as it is saying but not as cool as the GFS.

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3 minutes ago, Ahoff said:

While the GFS has a very pronounced cool period.  Wild swings.  I'd side more with a more conservative version of the Euro at this point.  Not as warm as it is saying but not as cool as the GFS.

GFS is also wet. 0z had nearly 3” of rain through 240.

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1 hour ago, KPITSnow said:

Low of 52 last night. Pretty unusual to continue and see these low humidity conditions and it’s honestly really unusual in the summer to see highs pushing the mid 80’s then crashing to the low 50’s overnight 

What's even weirder is it was an inter-hour low sandwiched between a 57 and 58 degree reading.  Just plummeted and recovered within the hour.  Wild drop.

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Crazy diurnal ranges outside of the urban heat island.

Zelienople Municipal Airport [National Weather Service : Observed Weather for past 3 Days : Zelienople Municipal Airport]:

26: 72/37

27: 81/37

28: 79/41

29: 88/52

30: 84/52

31: NA/46

Low of 46 in Zelie this morning, looks like another day with highs in the mid to upper 80s. Tomorrow night will probably drop back into the upper 40s/lower 50s, with a high approaching 90. Point-click has 88/51 there tomorrow, but I'd say there's a decent chance of a rare combo of lows in the 40s, and highs 90+.

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I've been wondering, do the wildfires in Canada and the associated smoke from them have anything to do with the dryness we've seen?  Like does that smoke act as a vacuum for moisture?  It seems since the smoke has been around we've been pretty dry.

Just wondering if there's a correlation.

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30 minutes ago, Ahoff said:

I've been wondering, do the wildfires in Canada and the associated smoke from them have anything to do with the dryness we've seen?  Like does that smoke act as a vacuum for moisture?  It seems since the smoke has been around we've been pretty dry.

Just wondering if there's a correlation.

I was wondering this too, and it prompted me to do some research. Based on what I observed, the presence of smoke does have a cooling and drying effect (at least during the warm season, when fires are more ubiquitous).

Wildfire smoke can reduce convection by lowering surface temperature by up to several degrees. I wonder too if the absorptive quality of wildfire smoke which can result in warming of the atmosphere in the layers where smoke is present might also contribute to this effect, since there would be both a decrease in temperature in the lower atmosphere and an increase in temperature in the upper atmosphere, both of which would supress updraft intensity. Unlike cloud cover, smoke is supposedly mostly transparent to outgoing long-wave radiation, so has only a small warming effect overnight.

In areas subject to a marine layer or high humidity, this cooling effect can enhance cloudiness and result in increased persistence of a low stratus deck and/or fog. Additionally, the smoke alters the microphysics of clouds. The aerosol acts as cloud condensation nuclei, which can enhance cumuliform cloud cover. The abundance of cloud condensation nuclei results in clouds that have consist of more, but smaller, droplets. The increase in droplet density results in brighter clouds [higher albedo] which results in an additional indirect local cooling effect, when clouds are present. However, because droplet size is less, the clouds may produce less rainfall, or be less apt to produce rainfall.

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1 hour ago, TheClimateChanger said:

Crazy diurnal ranges outside of the urban heat island.

Zelienople Municipal Airport [National Weather Service : Observed Weather for past 3 Days : Zelienople Municipal Airport]:

26: 72/37

27: 81/37

28: 79/41

29: 88/52

30: 84/52

31: NA/46

Low of 46 in Zelie this morning, looks like another day with highs in the mid to upper 80s. Tomorrow night will probably drop back into the upper 40s/lower 50s, with a high approaching 90. Point-click has 88/51 there tomorrow, but I'd say there's a decent chance of a rare combo of lows in the 40s, and highs 90+.

Not sure I’ve ever seen those swings around here outside of spring or fall when we get a massive cold front.

 

I said elsewhere that it reminds me of flagstaff where you often get highs in the mid 80’s and lows in the 40’s, but that is usually reserved for more arid climates 

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2 minutes ago, KPITSnow said:

Not sure I’ve ever seen those swings around here outside of spring or fall when we get a massive cold front.

 

I said elsewhere that it reminds me of flagstaff where you often get highs in the mid 80’s and lows in the 40’s, but that is usually reserved for more arid climates 

We should enjoy it while it lasts, however long that may be.  Hopefully through at least this weekend, because it may be a long time before we see a stretch like this again..

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