Severe storms expected to move through Pittsburgh area today
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Storm chances are as high as they have been recently today as a cold front pushes by.
Any Alert Days Ahead? Today is a First Alert Weather Day due to severe weather being possible today. Large hail, destructive straight-line winds, and even tornados will all be possible this afternoon as a cool front slides through.
Aware: Debby will indirectly impact our area on Friday and it'll fuel rain chances moving through. The main spin of Debby will remain to the south.
Yesterday's storm chance was dependent on what we call 'outflows' or waves that continue in the atmosphere after storms end. These outflows can be 'kickers' for storm development the next day. As you'd expect, tracking the impact, timing out, and successfully forecasting outflows is difficult. Often times it is why we have a risk of severe weather but nothing eventually comes. While we did see storms roll through yesterday, they were VERY isolated and no severe thunderstorm warnings were issued.
Today's risk comes as a cold front moves through. Instability is plentiful with surface dew points high, robust sunshine expected this morning, and a hot airmass in place ahead of the front. A radar analysis at 4:30a shows a mid-level low centered just southeast of Green Bay Wisconsin. THe warm sector extends from Chicago to Buffalo with convective activity extending from central Michigan to northern Ohio just south of I-80. We may see a passing storm or two in the morning hours north of Pittsburgh. Everyone else will have to wait until the afternoon before storms are set to arrive.
Afternoon storms will come from a west-to-east-aligned line of storms. The line will drift south. Severe weather chances will peak for places along I-80 around 3p. In Pittsburgh around 5p-6p. While severe storms are expected to rapidly decrease in intensity after 7p, the severe risk will continue from 7p-9p for places along and south of I-70.
If we didn't see any rain today highs in most places would hit the 90s. With the rain moving through, highs will depend on the arrival of the first rain. So I have places south of I-70 still seeing highs in the 90s. Highs will be significantly cooler than that for places north of I-80. as the line coming in from the north will arrive here first. I have Pittsburgh hitting 88 degrees for a high temperature today with the high being hit around 3p. Pittsburgh temperatures should be in the mid-80s at noon today.
Looking ahead, Rain showers will stick around overnight for places along and south of I-70. You may even hear a rumble or two during the morning hours. Rain chances are very low for Thursday. Friday is going to be interesting as the remnants of Debby will fuel rain showers for us for the day. Rain totals could average more than an inch across a wide swath of our area. Right now rain totals should be highest south of I-70 over to the Laurel Highlands. Higher rain totals will go a long way to alleviate drought conditions in parts of Virginia and West Virginia. These are communities listed as having 'extreme drought' right now.
The weekend here is looking wonderful. Highs on both Saturday and Sunday will be near 80 degrees.
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