Rain, rain, go away
No disrespect to The Temptations, but Southwestern Pennsylvanians wish it would not rain.
Since the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh announced April 20 the region recorded 31 spring days with precipitation, we’ve added another rainy day to the calendar.
That means the Pittsburgh area has been a sea of umbrellas for 32 days since meteorological spring began March 1 – tied for the sixth-most rainy days through April 19 since the NWS began keeping precipitation records for Pittsburgh in 1871.
“The highest number total for precipitation days in spring is 56, in 1890,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Shannon Hefferan. “From March through May – that’s our meteorological spring. We have another month to go with spring.”
From March 1 through April 19, Pittsburgh’s climate center recorded 32 days of rain. While that record breaks into the meteorological top 10, there’s a good chance the region will not break any full-spring rain records in 2022.
Raindrops may fall on heads Monday into Tuesday, but with only 37 days until the last day of May, it appears that not enough days remain for the NWS to record 56 days or more of rain for spring 2022.
For Pittsburgh to break the spring precipitation record, it would have to rain or snow for 24 of the next 37 days.
“It doesn’t look like we are going to break that,” said Hefferan. “If you look at the Climate Prediction Center, May does look above average. The next two weeks, their outlooks are actually below average. It’s not likely we’ll break (record rainfall) for the spring.”
Which, Hefferan added with a laugh, “I don’t think people are gong to be sad about that.”