Scattered to numerous storms expected today for the Pittsburgh area
It's going to be another day with scattered to numerous storms expected today across the Pittsburgh area.
First Alert: None
Yesterday was our 10th 90-degree day of the year as temperatures managed to briefly spike up in between waves of thunderstorms during the early afternoon. This morning begins much like the last several across our area with temperatures struggling to drop below 70-degrees amid very humid conditions.
As expected, these storms produced very heavy rain in spots with localized swaths of 2-3"+ although a majority of folks did not receive this. There were multiple reports of flash flooding in Central to Southern Washington county.
A stationary front is gradually dissolving over the region with additional waves of energy aloft in the atmosphere pivoting in from the northwest. This will support a continued opportunity for rain and thunderstorms through early evening. Atmospheric moisture levels remain unusually high across our area, so any of these cells will be able to produce heavy rainfall rates in a short amount of time. As a matter of fact, there is a good chance that when the morning weather balloon is launched, we will likely break a record for the amount of moisture in the air. The peak of t-storm coverage won't occur until midday through early afternoon. Once the trough passes to our southeast, expect storms to shift south of I-70 by 6-7pm and exit our area for the most part between sunset and midnight.
With high relative humidity, clearing skies, and light winds, much of the area should see dense Monday morning. This fog will begin to mix out by midday to early afternoon with partly cloudy skies and hot conditions. Air temperatures Monday through Wednesday will likely reach 90 degrees with heat indices in the mid to upper 90s. As far as storm chances go, these will highly depend on when spokes of lift from disturbances called shortwaves pivot into the area. The core of the heat ridge will be centered across the Midwest and Mississippi River Valley Monday-Wednesday. A weak shortwave will move into the area late Monday evening. This may trigger a stray to isolated storm chance Monday evening in our westernmost counties. Another wave may move in on Tuesday evening with strong storms more likely into portions of Central OH, but if these survive the trip, we may take part in that activity as well.
The day most likely to see storms this week will be between Wednesday evening into midday Thursday as a stronger cold front moves through.
Some storms could briefly turn severe Wednesday afternoon with remnant showers on Thursday. Substantially drier air and slightly below normal temperatures are expected to end the week.
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