Hot weather is on tap for Pittsburgh's weekend. Here's when rain chances return.
By: KDKA-TV's Trey Fulbright and Carl Lam
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Saturday morning begins with clear skies and seasonable temperatures across western Pennsylvania.
High pressure has settled over the Great Lakes and will linger across the region the rest of Saturday and Sunday before slowly dissipating and moving east. This will keep the largely inactive weather pattern persistent across our region for the weekend.
Highs on Saturday will likely reach the mid to upper 80s, especially for lower elevations. Temperatures increase even further on Sunday as a light southerly wind aids in transporting warmer air into the region. The air on Sunday will be relatively dry, so this should allow for a decent shot of temperatures making it to 90 degrees, especially in lower elevations and more urban-centered areas.
As stated in previous forecast cycles, the return of moisture and precipitation chances has been delayed some due to the increasing likelihood of a blocking pattern developing over the region. A system over the East Coast will slowly lift north into New England Sunday night into Monday which will act to block and back up the flow from the Great Plains states. That means western Pennsylvania will be sandwiched in between these two features with dry and warm weather likely to persist another day into Monday.
By Monday afternoon and evening, we should see an increase in clouds and perhaps a shower move into eastern Ohio. These showers will likely have a hard time moving east initially, but as the flow aloft becomes stronger, that should aid in allowing scattered rain and storms to progress into our area by Tuesday and especially Wednesday.
Severe weather does not look to be of concern at this time as there will be weak winds aloft preventing storm organization and rather weak amounts of instability. With the enhanced cloud cover and elevated moisture levels, temperatures during the middle of next week during the day will hover in the low to middle 80s with morning lows in the upper 60s to near 70 degrees. A warming trend appears plausible by the end of next week.
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