1 August 2024
On Tuesday 30 July after a interval of abnormally dry climate Pittsburgh had a collection of gully washers that scoured the creeks and greened up the grass. The downpours have been sudden and stupendous. In simply three transient episodes — happily spaced seven hours aside — we obtained 0.85″ of rain.
Ten years in the past we have been amazed by these episodes as a result of they have been so completely different from our standard sluggish, soaking rains. Again then the one place I’d skilled this climate prompted me to name it “Texas rain.” In 2014 local weather.gov predicted a rise in heavy rain episodes on this map. Pittsburgh registered an uptick however not the worst.
OLD PREDICTION IN 2014. Heavy Rain Days in 2041-2070
5 years later local weather.gov revised their prediction and it was worse.
REVISED! PREDICTION IN 2019. Heavy Rain Days in Late twenty first Century
From local weather.gov: Put together for extra downpours: Heavy rain has elevated throughout a lot of the United States, and is more likely to improve additional.
The 2 maps usually are not “apples to apples.” On the 2019 map the prediction time-frame is longer and alter is expressed as a proportion moderately than an absolute variety of days.
Nonetheless the map is horrifying and it lit a fireplace beneath Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority (PWSA) to repair the sewers now earlier than issues worsen. Since then they’ve been systematically digging up metropolis streets to exchange historical storm sewer strains whereas Alcosan (sewage remedy) is implementing their EPA-approved plan to maintain sewage out of the rivers.
We don’t want a prediction map to inform us it’s getting wetter in Pittsburgh. Frequent heavy downpours at the moment are a lifestyle.
Learn extra — although 10 years outdated — on this classic article:
