Temperatures will be snapping back to near normal today in the Pittsburgh area
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Temperatures will be snapping back to near normal today in the Pittsburgh area.
Morning lows will dip to the low 40s. Technically today's airmass will be the coldest of the next week with 850mb temperatures coming in at just around -2°c. 850mb temperatures will warm up to around 9°c on Wednesday but a cold layer of air will be trapped near the surface making it tough for us to see highs much warmer than the mid to upper 50s.
Any Alert Days Ahead? None
Aware: We are a whopping 10.2° warmer than average so far this month
You'd have to go back to 1977 to find the last time Pittsburgh got off to as warm a November start as what we have seen so far this month. That's impressive. So far our average temperature for the month is 56°. You get the average temperature by simply adding up the high temperature and low temperature and dividing by two. For multiple days you just add up all the highs and lows and then again divide by two. While the average high and low can change daily, for today the average high is 52 degrees with the low coming in at 35 degrees. So far this month we have seen only one day with temperatures not hitting 60 degrees or higher. We have had four days where our low temperature has dipped below 40 degrees, so morning lows aren't as extreme as what our daily highs have been.
One of the potential reasons for the how start to November could be the ongoing drought conditions. Soil moisture is extremely low right now, with dry soil giving us little in the way of protection from big changes as the sun's rays are easily absorbed into the dry soil every day. The sun warms us by it's energy being absorbed into the ground. This radiates heat back up. The drier conditions the more efficient the process becomes. It's one of the ways that drought conditions can actually become a domino effect with dry and hot conditions oftentimes eating into low rain-chance days.
The good news is that we have a couple of can't miss rain days on the way over the next week with the first one arriving as gulf moisture comes our way from the Louisiana coast. This will mix in with a cold front to bring rain showers to us through the day on Thursday with the best chance for rain coming during the morning hours.
We will see a secondary system arriving on Sunday evening with the peak chance for rain occurring Monday morning.
Wednesday morning temperatures will dip to near 30. Thursday highs are expected to hit the upper 40s with rain around throughout the day. I have Friday and Saturday highs in the mid-50s with highs on Sunday and Monday close to 60.
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