Fall color of pawpaw leaves, Schenley, 25 Oct 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
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.
Virginia creeper at Herrs Island back channel, 22 Oct 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
Sunlight reflecting on the water made rippling lights in the trees on 22 October. It was so warm you can hear crickets.
Ripples in the trees, 22 Oct 2024 (video by Kate St. John)
Yesterday in Schenley Park the trees were yellow or red depending on species.
Scene on the Upper Trail, 25 Oct 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)Scene on the Serpentine, 25 Oct 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
Not to be outdone by autumn leaves, the sky turned orange at sunrise on Saturday.
Sunrise, 25 Oct 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
Sunrise is after 7am now. We’ll “fix” that next weekend when we turn the clocks back.
Aurora borealis at North Park, Allegheny County PA, 10 Oct 2024, 10:15pm (photo by Steve Gosser)
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.
Faint pink of the aurora borealis at Schenley Park, 10 Oct 2024, 8:45pm (photo by Kate St. John)
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 …
Aurora borealis, Armstrong County, PA, early hours of 11 Oct 2024 (photo by Dave Brooke)
… this timelapse video.
Aurora borealis, Armstrong County, 10-11 Oct 2024, embedded video by Dave Brooke on YouTube
Double wow!!
A good view of the northern lights comes down to location and patience … and a good camera.
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.
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.
OLD PREDICTION IN 2014. Heavy Rain Days in 2041-2070
Predicted Change in days of extreme rainfall in 2041-2070 compared to 1971-2000, Greenhouse gas higher emissions (map from climate.gov)
Five years later climate.gov revised their prediction and it was worse.
REVISED! PREDICTION IN 2019. Heavy Rain Days in Late 21st Century
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.
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.
Turkey vultures wake up in Virginia before it’s hot (photo by Kate St. John)
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.
Sunset in Pittsburgh, 10 July 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
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.
Flowers at Cathedral of Learning, 9 July 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
The peregrines cope with the heat by perching in the shade. Carla looks sleepy an hour before sunset on 9 July.
Carla resting on the green perch, 9 July 2024, 7:25pm (photo from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)
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.
Sunrise on the last day of Excessive Heat Warning in Pittsburgh, 22 June 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
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.
Blue is “panting” at the nest, 21 June 2024, 5:15pm (photo from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)
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.
Ecco sunbathing, 20 June 2024, 12:09pm (photo from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)
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.
Common mullein at Aspinwall Riverfront Park, 12 June 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
A high pressure system that was overheating the Southwest moved in on Monday and put a cap over us that’s circulating hot air and trapping heat at the surface.
Meanwhile there are very few clouds to block the sun. It just keeps getting hotter and hotter. Climate Central says the metro areas of Indianapolis, Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., New York City, and Boston are experiencing:
Record high temperatures from 94°F to 99°F
High humidity that makes it feels hotter when heat index values reach 105°F
Nighttime temperatures never cool below the 70-76°F range.
Last evening severe thunderstorms knocked out power to more than 100,000 electric customers in southwestern PA. I’m fortunate to have both electricity and air conditioning so I’m staying indoors.
I can hardly wait for it to end.
p.s. US weather maps never show Canada. Did the heat just cease at the border? Nope. It’s hot in Canada, too!
On a woodcock walk at Hillman State Park on the night of 13 April, we paused to look at a beaver pond when someone pointed to a strange row of lights moving silently across the sky. There were more than 20 of them, obviously man-made and kind of creepy. None of us knew what they were. The next morning I figured out they were Starlink satellites.
This week Pittsburghers will have five opportunities to see this eerie phenomenon. Here’s what they look like, even without binoculars.
Starlink Satellites train seen in the sky Elon Musk SpaceX 2024 (embedded from ViralVideoLab on YouTube)
Note: This group contains about 60 satellites. Nowadays SpaceX launches about 20 per batch.
A Starlink satellite string can be seen only in the few days following a Starlink Falcon rocket launch. You must be in the right location (under the flight path), with a clear sky and within two hours of sunset or sunrise.
This 5-minute video “explainer” by meteorologist Brad Panovich in Charlotte, NC, recorded in September 2023, explains the network of Starlink satellites, how the string is deployed and why you only see them for a couple of days if you’re lucky.
The SpaceX Starlink Satellites Tracker website predicts when a Starlink train will pass overhead for your selected location. The website cannot predict very far in advance because the calculations must be made after a payload rocket has launched. Though the launches are scheduled, the actual time of liftoff can change.
Will the sky be clear for viewing the transit this week? So far so good according to the Pittsburgh Clear Sky Chart. Check the Starlink schedule above or on the web, then find a patch of dark sky and look up at the right moment in the direction indicated.
Creepy, eh?
And according to Wikipedia, “Astronomers have raised concerns about the effect the constellation may have on ground-based astronomy, and how the satellites will contribute to an already congested orbital environment.”
More information: Starlink is a satellite internet constellation whose purpose is to provide worldwide internet coverage and global mobile broadband [for a fee]. Starlink Services LLC is a subsidiary of SpaceX which is owned by Elon Musk. Since 2019 SpaceX has launched over 6,000 mass-produced small satellites into low Earth orbit. Nearly 12,000 satellites are planned to be deployed, with a possible later extension to 34,400.
Late Friday afternoon I saw a very dark cloud outside my window that looked almost flat like a wall. The horizon obscured the bottom edge as the cloud moved away toward Highland Park.
Shortly thereafter the cloud spawned a tornado that touched down at the Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium. The National Weather Service rated it EF1, the strongest of four tornadoes in the Pittsburgh metro area that afternoon.
Fortunately no people or animals were injured and the most dramatic damage was a car flattened by a tree in the Zoo parking lot. The video below shows local reactions including people waiting in a car on the Highland Park Bridge for the tornado to pass. Glad I was not there!
Those of you who live in severe tornado regions probably think Pittsburghers are wimps to get excited about an EF1 tornado but in fact tornadoes are rare here.
Blackpoll warbler, Presque Isle, 12 May 2024 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
18 May 2024
Best birds this week were seen at Presque Isle State Park on Sunday 12 May while birding with Charity and Kaleem Kheshgi. At Leo’s Landing many of the birds were at eye level including this blackpoll warbler and the barn and bank swallows.
Barn and bank swallows, Presque Isle, 12 May 2024 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
Even the treetop birds, like this yellow-throated vireo, cooperated for photographs.
Yellow-throated vireo, Presque Isle, 12 May 2024 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
Was this redstart was looking askance at us? Or eyeing a bug?
American redstart, Presque Isle, 12 May 2024 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
I had high hopes for the Bird Banding at Hays Woods on Wednesday 15 May but we were in for a surprise. No birds to band! Bummer. 🙁 This restart, banded earlier in the week, shows what we could have seen.
American redstart at Bird Lab banding (photo by Kate St. John)
After we left the banding station we had good looks at a scarlet tanager and found this Kentucky flat millipede (Apheloria virginiensis). It’s colored black and orange because it’s toxic.
It secretes cyanide compounds as a defense. Don’t touch it!
You might find one perched and dying on top of a twig. That’s because it can host the parasitic fungus Arthrophaga myriapodina which causes infected individuals to climb to an elevated spot before death (per Wikipedia). Eeeew.
Centipede Aphelosia virginiensis, Hays Woods, 15 May 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
This week there were flowers in the tulip trees (Liriodendron) obscured by thick leaves. This flower came into view when a squirrel bit off the twig and didn’t retrieve the branch.
Tulip tree flower and leaves, 16 May 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
Instead of rain on Wednesday we had a beautiful sunrise.
Sunrise 14 May 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
To make up for no rain on Wednesday it’s pouring right now on Saturday.
