14 November 2024
Seven years ago this month, on 5 November 2017, a cold front spawned 24 tornadoes as it passed over Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The one that hit Williamsfield, Ohio was documented by the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh.
The November outbreak was unusual for its location and intensity, described in this vintage article.
So far, this year’s November tornadoes are less numerous and are well south and west of here.
3 November 2024
Last week began with light morning frost but rose to 80°F on Halloween.
The colors were gorgeous at Duck Hollow on Monday …
… while tendrils of fog chased each other across the river.
These wisps were formed at the rivers edge as clear cold air passed over warm water. Sunbeams make this a poor quality video, below, but you can see the wisps starting near shore. (You might also hear a song sparrow chipping in the background.)
Slanting light illuminated the trees at Schenley Park.
A leaf-hidden cocoon reminded me why clearing out leaves is bad for insects. This insect will overwinter on a leaf in Frick Park and emerge as — perhaps — a butterfly or month next spring. Or it may become food for a bird this winter. The insect chain is broken where don’t leave the leaves.
2 November 2024
Spring Forward, Fall Back. Daylight Saving Time ends tonight as our clocks turn back an hour. Tomorrow the sun will set an hour earlier. A lot of us will be grumpy. Some will be depressed.
Most Americans agree that changing the clocks is bad.
Numerous polls have found that most Americans believe that a standard time should be fixed and permanent—as many as 75% favor no longer changing clocks twice per year. One of the most common observations among researchers of varying backgrounds is that the change itself causes most of the negative effects, more so than either standard time or daylight saving time. Researchers have observed numerous ill effects of the annual transitions, including reduced worker productivity, increased heart attacks and strokes, increased medical errors, and increased traffic incidents.
— Wikipedia: SP Act Debate
There are places that don’t participate in this dreaded exercise: Arizona, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and other U.S. island territories.
But there is an area in northeastern Arizona of self-governed indigenous tribal land where part of it uses Daylight Saving Time (DST) and the center does not. The DST area is the Navajo Nation which spans three states and has chosen to use DST. The donut hole is the Hopi Reservation that uses Standard Time. Here’s a closer look.
If you drive from Tusayan, AZ to Tuba City to Ganado to Window Rock in March through October, you will change time zones seven times between Standard Time and DST. (Did I count correctly?) People who have to make that trip will be relieved that everyone is on Standard Time tomorrow.
Changing your clocks: Everything connected to the Internet — mobile phones, etc. — will change automatically at 2:00am Sunday. The rest of the clocks are up to us.
p.s. I wonder what happens to a cellphone on the trip from Tusayan to Window Rock during DST.
1 November 2024
In 1944 the US Army Corp of Engineers completed a flood control dam across the Youghiogheny River that created a lake into Maryland. The project included a new bridge for US Route 40 because the Great Crossings Bridge at Somerfield would be submerged and so would the town’s low lying streets and buildings.
Normally the lake is full and beautiful. You would never know there was a bridge underneath it.
But this year a drought in the Youghiogheny watershed has lowered the lake so far that you can walk out on the old Great Crossings Bridge.
This Google Map shows both bridges.
embedded Google Map showing submerged Great Crossings Bridge north of US Route 40
Pittsburgh is not in severe drought so it’s hard to understand how this lake could drop unless you know where the river comes from. The Youghiogheny is a north-flowing river with headwaters in the mountains of West Virginia and Maryland. Notice that the rest of the Monongahela river basin starts in West Virginia as well.
The headwaters of both the Youghiogheny and Monongahela have been in drought since early July. At this point the drought is Extreme to Exceptional in western Maryland and West Virginia.
Water levels have dropped in both rivers but the Monongahela cannot afford to get too low because it carries a lot of barge and boat traffic.
However, there is water upstream to feed the Monongahela. Releases from Youghiogheny River Lake have, in part, kept the Mon navigable.
And so the old bridge emerges from the deep.
p.s. This isn’t the first time the old bridge has been exposed.
26 October 2024
Fall color is so spectacular in Pittsburgh this week that many of us have been snapping pictures everywhere we go. Here are just a few of the colorful leaves and trees I’ve seen in town.
Pawpaw leaves are turning bright yellow in Schenley Park while Virginia creeper is red along the Three Rivers Heritage bike trail at Herrs Island.
Sunlight reflecting on the water made rippling lights in the trees on 22 October. It was so warm you can hear crickets.
Yesterday in Schenley Park the trees were yellow or red depending on species.
Not to be outdone by autumn leaves, the sky turned orange at sunrise on Saturday.
Sunrise is after 7am now. We’ll “fix” that next weekend when we turn the clocks back.
11 October 2024
We usually don’t see the aurora borealis as far south as Pittsburgh but this year has been amazing. Last night was its third visit and perhaps the best.
Having missed the other two events I went to Schenley Park golf course last night from 8:30 to 9:00pm. Knowing it would only be visible in cellphone photos I took a lot of pictures. Obviously there is too much light pollution! You can count the stars on one hand in my photo. But the sky is pink.
Steve Gosser went to Allegheny County’s North Park and waited a long time for the aurora to become intense. At 10:15pm he captured the red and green photo at top. Wow!
Dave Brooke went further afield to Armstrong County and waited past midnight. He captured this still photo and …
… this timelapse video.
Double wow!!
A good view of the northern lights comes down to location and patience … and a good camera.
p.s. Dave described his timelapse process in the video description, copied below:
October 11th 2024 saw a G4 Geomagnetic storm with a Kp:8. This timelapse was taken in Armstrong Co in Western PA starting around 9:30pm. It consists of 193, 10 second exposures with an interval of 5 seconds between each shot. They were taken with a Canon R5 and a Sigma 14-24mm Art lens at 14mm. The aperture was 2.8 and ISO 800. The sequence was rendered in LRTimelapse and outputted at 1/2 speed.
— Description of video by Dave Brooke
1 August 2024
On Tuesday 30 July after a period of abnormally dry weather Pittsburgh had a series of gully washers that scoured the creeks and greened up the grass. The downpours were sudden and stupendous. In just three brief episodes — fortunately spaced seven hours apart — we received 0.85″ of rain.
Ten years ago we were amazed by these episodes because they were so different from our usual slow, soaking rains. Back then the only place I’d experienced this weather prompted me to call it “Texas rain.” In 2014 climate.gov predicted an increase in heavy rain episodes on this map. Pittsburgh registered an uptick but not the worst.
Five years later climate.gov revised their prediction and it was worse.
From climate.gov: Prepare for more downpours: Heavy rain has increased across most of the United States, and is likely to increase further.
The two maps are not “apples to apples.” On the 2019 map the prediction time frame is longer and change is expressed as a percentage rather than an absolute number of days.
However the map is scary and it lit a fire under Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority (PWSA) to fix the sewers now before things get worse. Since then they’ve been systematically digging up city streets to replace ancient storm sewer lines while Alcosan (sewage treatment) is implementing their EPA-approved plan to keep sewage out of the rivers.
We don’t need a prediction map to tell us it’s getting wetter in Pittsburgh. Frequent heavy downpours are now a way of life.
Read more — though 10 years old — in this vintage article:
15 July 2024
Excessive heat from the western U.S. is now in the East and the next two days promise to be brutal.
Right now I’m in Tidewater Virginia where today’s high temperature will be 97°F and “feel like” 107°F. Just after dawn the turkey vultures warmed their wings in my sister’s backyard. I’m sure they know where and how to stay cool later today.
We humans, however, are not always in control of our time and some humans are not as smart as turkey vultures so every newscast reminds us to be careful and stay cool.
Yes, today will be hot but tomorrow will be worse. There will be Extreme Heat even in the mountains of Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Fortunately Wednesday will bring relief. Watch the heat for 15-17July on these maps.
13 July 2024, Pittsburgh
Hot. Sultry. This week’s oppressive heat and humidity was curiously exhausting. Where have I experienced this weather before? Ah, yes. Florida in July. For the most part I stayed indoors so there’s not much “Seen This Week.”
On a brief foray around the Cathedral of Learning I did not find the peregrines but did see a beautiful flowerbed of black-eyed susans.
The peregrines cope with the heat by perching in the shade. Carla looks sleepy an hour before sunset on 9 July.
I’m not looking forward to next week’s heat wave, though it won’t be as bad in Pittsburgh as further east.
We complain about staying indoors during winter but now we’re staying indoors in the summer, too.
22 June 2024
Most of us didn’t see much of the outdoors this week. It was just too hot. Fortunately today is the last day of Pittsburgh’s Excessive Heat Warning. Tomorrow we’ll have rain, thunderstorms and wind, though it will reach 90°F. Certainly hot. Not “Excessive.”
Yesterday while it was 93°F, one of the Pitt peregrine youngsters (“Blue”) tried to beat the heat by resting in the shade at the front of the nest. She opened her wings and gular fluttered (like panting) to cool herself off.
Two days earlier her father, Ecco, was sunbathing at noon! The sun’s heat kills feather lice and forces the live bugs off the bird’s back to places where it’s easier to preen them away. After roasting a bit, Ecco spent time preening in the shade.
Some day soon (I hope!) it will be pleasant enough to take a walk in the sun as I did on 12 June at Aspinwall Riverfront Park. Every time I go there I look for peregrines but have not found any.
