Pittsburgh Weather: Fantastic weather returns to close out the weekend
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Strong storms did indeed roll through on Saturday afternoon.
Locally, the most significant cell brought what looks like tornado damage to a fairly large swath of Washington County. Reports of multiple trees down, barns and outhouses destroyed, and power outages all came in due to a tornado-warned storm.
WEATHER LINKS:
Current Conditions | School Closings & Delays | Submit Your Weather Photos
The wording from the National Weather Service for the reports makes it clear this damage was from a tornado. It's impressive because any surveys to confirm the tornado won't happen until today at the earliest.
Most of the reports coming in this morning were for wind and there are equal reports of these on both I-80 and I-70.
Today we get a break from storms, with just an isolated chance for rain.
Skies should be mostly sunny at sunrise at 6:29; they'll be partly cloudy by noon.
Behind the front, highs should only hit the low 80s today. I have dropped today's temperature twice over the past two days. I should have already had the temp down to the low 80s so I am a little miffed at myself for not being more aggressive there. Winds will be out of the west at 5-10mph.
Looking ahead, Monday is a First Alert Weather Day with rain and storms arriving during the afternoon.
It appears at this point that the severe weather threat won't arrive until late, perhaps maybe even 10 or 11 in the evening, as a cold front slides through.
Model data is all over the place at this time but the set-up is concerning with a lifting warm front quickly changing to a cold front that sweeps through. The vertical profile during this time shows what we call large 'lapse rates' or changes in temperature with height.
A couple of things to point out with Monday's storm chance. First off, the storm chance may change over to Tuesday morning's storm chance with storms arriving just after midnight on Tuesday. Secondly, there is a chance that our storm chances go away completely on Monday.
The set-up is there on paper but it will be dependent on a number of things coming together.
For now, I will keep the First Alert Day in place but it could potentially be one of those that we take it away. \
Stay up to date with the KDKA Mobile App – which you can download here!
