Panther Hollow Lake in Schenley Park is flooded on 25 Feb 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
1 March 2022
Last Thursday 24 February it rained more than an inch overnight in Pittsburgh. By Friday morning Panther Hollow Lake in Schenley Park had flooded its surrounding trails and the remaining ice floated on muddy water.
Ephemeral streams became cascading waterfalls.
Meanwhile the water rose and fell at Cedar Creek in Westmoreland County where Donna Foyle found cat ice left behind.
On Saturday I thought we were done with ice but a drive on Sunday found gleaming hillsides of ice-coated trees like this one along Route 422, photographed by Karyn Delaney. I had no idea there had been freezing rain north of Pittsburgh.
@john_kucko took a video of the ice on his walk in Stoneboro, PA.
Blue sky with a skim of clouds, 9 Feb 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
12 February 2022
This week’s mostly sunny days brought interesting clouds and sunrises.
On Wednesday 9 February a skim of clouds, above, feathered across deep blue in tiny lines and ripples. Then part of the cloud turned into an Olympic fist raised in victory. Ta dah!
The skim of clouds makes a fist, 9 Feb 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
On Thursday 10 February the sunrise glowed deep red then turned a brilliant yellow just ten minutes later.
Sunrise, 10 Feb 2022, 7:16:05 (photo by Kate St. John)Sunrise, 10 Feb 2022, 7:26:59 (photo by Kate St. John)
What happens when two massive black holes collide and merge? A team of astronomers says we’re about to find out, in as soon as 100 days in early/mid May.
In the center of a galaxy 1.2 billion light-years from Earth, astronomers say they have seen signs that two giant black holes, with a combined mass of hundreds of millions of Suns, are gearing up for a cataclysmic merger as soon as 100 days from now. The event, if it happens, would be momentous for astronomy, offering a glimpse of a long-predicted, but never witnessed mechanism for black hole growth. It might also unleash an explosion of light across the electromagnetic spectrum, as well as a surge of gravitational waves and ghostly particles called neutrinos that could reveal intimate details of the collision.
If recent calculations are correct, an even better opportunity is on its way: Two giant black holes are about to crash. It’s the first time we humans know where to look when it happens so astronomers are getting ready to watch.
Hold onto your hats! When giant black holes collide will we hear the crash?
Snow and ice melting at Frick Park, 1 Feb 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
5 February 2022
This week began with temperatures in the single digits so it was amazing that we had a record rainfall on Thursday. Not snow, rain.
By Tuesday afternoon, 1 February, the high temperature was 48 degrees and everything was melting at Frick Park, above.
However, Wednesday’s red sunrise on Groundhog Day presaged the upcoming winter storm. “Red sky at morn, sailors forewarn.”
Sunrise in Pittsburgh on Groundhog Day, 2 Feb 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
Birds knew bad weather was coming and frantically fueled up. This hungry red-tailed hawk momentarily perched at Carnegie Museum parking lot for a better look at potential prey while the blue jays shouted “Watch out!”
Red-tailed hawk at Carnegie Museum parking lot, 2 Feb 2002 (photo by Kate St. John)
On Thursday the storm moved in. It rained and rained — 1.02 inches — matching the previous record rainfall set in 1939. We were fortunate not to have freezing rain in the city.
By Friday snow covered everything again except this new creek flowing into Westinghouse fountain at Schenley Park.
… the most amazing event happened on Monday 31 January. Click the link for pictures, videos and the reason why the Flying Squirrel Hill Bus is in the air.
UPDATE IN 2023: THIS USER LEFT TWITTER AND DELETED ALL CONTENT. ALAS. The cold eerie light of aurora borealis in Arctic Canada at Nunavut. (The dark blobs are clouds.)
Icy waterfall, Butler County (photo by Kate St. John)
24 January 2022
With lows last weekend in the single digits and many days colder than normal this month, is this winter cold enough to kill pests? Not necessarily.
Insects and ticks have evolved to survive a normal winter but are vulnerable to extremes. Some pests may be vulnerable this winter if they aren’t careful to hide.
Fleas are the least hardy insects on this list as they will die after 10 consecutive days at or below 37oF, which is actually above freezing. However …
Fleas avoid cold temperatures by spending winter in the fur of warm mammals including pet dogs and cats. Perhaps that’s why fleas seem so bad in the fall.
Spotted lanternfly adults die in winter but that’s no problem for this invasive insect. Before they die the females lay eggs to overwinter as the next generation.
According to Wikipedia, research last year at The State University of New Jersey suggests that -13oF is about the temperature at which all eggs die. At 5oF there is limited hatching but it depends on how long they were chilled and where they were kept. Pittsburgh has merely flirted with 0oF this winter, not enough to kill lanternfly eggs.
The Steller’s sea eagle in Maine was still near Boothbay Harbor on Tuesday 18 January 2022, as reported by @WanderingSTSE. The bird is 7,000 miles away from his native range and the only member of his species on the continent. What would his life be like if he was at home?
Steller’s sea eagles (Haliaeetus pelagicus) breed in Far Eastern Russia and migrate south for the winter but they don’t leave cold weather behind. One of their favorite winter locations is Hokkaido, Japan where floating ice provides a platform from which to fish. (Blue arrow points to Hokkaido.)
They are joined there by a smaller sea eagle, the white-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) of Europe, Asia and western Greenland. White-tailed eagles are very similar to their closest relative, the bald eagle. All three are sea eagles in the genus Haliaeetus.
Snow depth on Craig St in Pittsburgh, 17 Jan 2022, 6:54am (photo by Kate St. John)
17 January 2022, 9am
A week ahead of today’s snowstorm the predictions were dire. By yesterday morning the forecast called for 6-12 inches in the Pittsburgh area beginning with wet snow on Sunday, possibly some freezing rain, ending on Monday at 1pm.
With that much warning and a national holiday, Martin Luther King Day, the streets are empty in Pittsburgh.
At 6:50am I found a windless place to measure the snow in my neighborhood, 5.75 inches shown above, and it is still snowing at 9am.
Here are more scenes before dawn.
Still snowing in Pittsburgh, lit by floodlight, 17 Jan 2022, 6:50am (photo by Kate St. John)
Maintenance crews were already out blowing, shoveling, salting and plowing to keep up with as many as 3 more inches.
The sky was white with snow but I could see lights in the distance.
Snowing in Pittsburgh, 17 Jan 2022, 6:48am (photo by Kate St. John)Snow in Oakland, 17 Jan 2022, 6:43am (photo by Kate St. John)
