Pittsburgh Weather: DEP issues Code Orange air quality alert for Liberty-Clairton area
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection declared a Code Orange Air Quality Action Day for the Liberty-Clairton area Tuesday.
The DEP said a strong temperature inversion Tuesday morning will likely contribute to daily average concentrations of fine particulate matter in the Code Orange range, with the highest hourly average concentrations between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m.
Air quality was expected to improve into the afternoon as the inversion breaks and winds from the south and southeast increase, the DEP said.
Young children, older people and those with respiratory problems are especially vulnerable to the effects of air pollution on Code Orange days and should limit outdoor activities.
While the weather will remain warm today, changes will begin today as we prime the pump for rain that should arrive on Wednesday morning.
- Daily average High: 60 Low: 41
- Sunrise: 7:43 Sunset: 6:26
Today: Remains pleasant but skies will be mostly cloudy.
Any Alert Days Ahead?: Nope. The next rain chance comes tomorrow and will impact some of the morning commutes. Rain chance also on Halloween day.
Aware: Weather will be more seasonal for the end of the week with the weekend looking dry.
The thing you'll certainly notice is the arrival of clouds. Skies will go from clear yesterday to mostly cloudy today. Winds won't be too bad, coming in out of the southeast at around 5-10mph. Dew points aren't expected to move up too much with dew points around 50° at midnight tonight. They're in the mid to low the 40s this morning. We should see some patchy fog this morning too.
For today, high temperatures will likely be warmer than yesterday when we hit 73 for the high. I have Pittsburgh hitting 74 for today's high. Morning lows are in the mid to upper 40s so warmer than yesterday by around 10 degrees. I have noon temperatures in the mid-60s.
Rain arrives tomorrow morning, and it looks like it will impact the latter half of the morning rush. The best chance for rain will arrive in the 7a hour and stick around through 10 a.m. A steady line of non-severe showers and isolated storms will move through during this time. Rain totals should be less than a tenth of an inch for this initial push with just an isolated rain chance after 10 a.m. for the remainder of Wednesday.
Wednesday highs will be in the low 60s with low temperatures hitting around the end of the day at around 48. Thursday will be cooler with morning lows near 40 and highs likely in the upper 50s. The coldest morning of the week will come in on Friday with lows dipping to near freezing for most places. Friday afternoon highs will be a seasonal 62 in Pittsburgh.
The rest of the weekend is looking dry with highs in the mid-60s both on Saturday and Sunday. Lows both days should be near 40. Halloween arrives with some minor frights due to a low rain chance through the day. At this point, it looks like the rain chance during Trick-or-Treat hours will be low.
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