What's going on with all this stormy weather in Pittsburgh? KDKA's First Alert Weather Team explains
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - If it seems to you that our KDKA First Alert Weather Days are becoming more and more frequent, it's not your imagination.
In fact, the weather we could get later today could become raucous.
So, what's going on with the weather?
KDKA's John Shumway tapped our experts for more and since it's science and theory, which means if you talk to five meteorologists, chances are you might get five opinions.
Not about this, though.
We have seen the funnels, the damage, and a lot of it recently in our neck of the woods.
"This is the most active season I've seen in my career," said KDKA First Alert Meteorologist Ray Petelin.
He isn't wrong, either. Fred McMullen, of the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh, explains.
"The average number of tornadoes in our 35 counties that we cover up through western Pennsylvania, into eastern Ohio, and northern West Virginia has six, and we're already at 14," he said.
"If you thought May was bad, June's actually the most active month for tornadoes," added KDKA First Alert Meteorologist Mary Ours.
What to expect in the Pittsburgh area forecast
KDKA First Alert Meteorologist Ron Smiley said a lot of rain, a lot of storms, a lot of tornadoes - it all happens.
The KDKA First Alert Weather Team and the National Weather Service said that basically, we're reaping what winter sowed.
"We didn't have much of a winter so we got more moisture feeding up here," McMullen said. "It's helped fuel these storms."
"We had a really, really warm winter," added Kristin Emery. "It never really cooled down and then we had 80s in May."
Mary Ours explained that those two ingredients for storms are warm, moist air and an unstable atmosphere and lately, our air hasn't even had the cool nights to recover. We've been seeing a lot of our records in the morning have been warmer than ever.
"Those little things all add up into something much bigger and we're seeing those bigger things," Petelin said.
A new normal or a rarity for the forecast?
Now, this doesn't mean that it will become our norm, in fact, this might be a one-off.
"This is not something that we're going to see every year," McMullen said.
That's also what the KDKA Weather Team is seeing, as well.
"Looking at the next two weeks, it actually looks like the pattern is going to cool down just a little bit," Smiley said. "I think overall this summer what you're going to be looking at is very hot weather."
However, first, we have to get through this First Alert Weather Day but clearly, all the meteorologists say that June has the potential to keep this extraordinary stormy season going.
