Scattered severe thunderstorms roll through Pittsburgh area
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Severe thunderstorm warnings are popping up across the Pittsburgh area.
The National Weather Service has issued a handful of severe thunderstorm warnings. The most up-to-date can be found on NWS Pittsburgh's social media account.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection also declared a Code Orange Air Quality Action Day for ozone for Friday. The area includes Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland counties.
Ron Smiley's morning forecast can be found below.
Today is not an easy day to forecast.
Temperatures won't be as hot as yesterday. There are so many small things happening though, correctly predicting the high temperature and how the day will go will pose a challenge. Model data is not helping with data all over the place.
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Looking at satellite and radar imagery at 4 a.m. there is a surface low directly over Columbus, Oh. tracking our way. A thin line of broken showers and even a storm stretch just south of Morgantown and into parts of Maryland.
A storm cell is just west of Hagerstown. As the low tracks our way this morning, I can't rule out a passing shower for places mainly south of I-70.
The low will track across our area and will be located to our east this afternoon into the evening. Data continues to show outflow boundaries (waves in the atmosphere left over from storms) being enough to start rain and storm development late this afternoon into the evening hours.
At this point, the biggest concern is for those caught in a slow-moving storm that dumps a decent amount of rain on top of an area for up to an hour. The chance for these types of storms increases the further south you go. So if traveling to the east to places like Washington DC or Baltimore, your path may take you directly into one of these downpours.
I have highs today hitting 89°. It may be tough to get back to 89° with light northerly winds for most, thick cloud cover in place, and the chance for rain. The airmass is still VERY hot with 860mb temps ~17°C. 850 temps will tick up to around 19°C on Friday and Saturday. I do have us hitting 90 on Friday but rain should keep temperatures WAY down on Saturday.
Back to today's forecast. Yes, there will be a chance for rain.
I have highs near 90 with noon temperatures in the mid-80s and light northerly winds in place for the afternoon. Just a heads up some storms this afternoon to evening may move opposite of what you'd normally expect with motion from the east to the west possible.
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