Pittsburgh weather? (Erie, Indiana, Mercer: fit in, college, earthquakes)

[Russia25]

I was thinking of relocating to the suburbs of Pittsburgh in a few years after college and was curious about the weather.

I come from western massachusetts where its wickedly cold in the winter with high winds and heavy snow and scorching hot summers with high humidity mixed in.

I have heard that because of the location in relation to the allegheny mountains that the area has alot of overcast days and heavy percipitation. Can anyone speak to this or what the average weather is like? It'd be really nice to move back to the area where my ancestors came into the country but if it's really crappy weather year round i'll have to reconsider.

Pittsburgh is considered one of the nicest cities in America to live in these days

[pghcleak]

People will complain about the weather and how it's always grey in the winter. I personally don't believe that our winters are really that bad. I've spent the last 4 years in the HEART of the snowbelt of Lake Erie and Pittsburgh's winter is nothing like that.

Some "suburbs" such as Fayette County, Westmoreland County, Indiana County, and others up around the I-80 corridor and down around the I-68 corridor get hit with decent heavy snows in the winters (comparable to the Lake Effect regions of Erie, Buffalo, and Cleveland). The City of Pittsburgh and most of it's immediate surrounding areas receive less amounts of snow (an occasional large storm once in awhile but recently have been escaping those). The sky may be gray but I've never really noticed it to be different than winters in most other locations.

As for the other 3 seasons...Fall, Spring, and Summer, I think are absolutely gorgeous in this part of the country.

[Russia25]

Originally Posted by pghcleak

People will complain about the weather and how it's always grey in the winter. I personally don't believe that our winters are really that bad. I've spent the last 4 years in the HEART of the snowbelt of Lake Erie and Pittsburgh's winter is nothing like that.

Some "suburbs" such as Fayette County, Westmoreland County, Indiana County, and others up around the I-80 corridor and down around the I-68 corridor get hit with decent heavy snows in the winters (comparable to the Lake Effect regions of Erie, Buffalo, and Cleveland). The City of Pittsburgh and most of it's immediate surrounding areas receive less amounts of snow (an occasional large storm once in awhile but recently have been escaping those). The sky may be gray but I've never really noticed it to be different than winters in most other locations.

As for the other 3 seasons...Fall, Spring, and Summer, I think are absolutely gorgeous in this part of the country.

How is the rain? Alot of drizzle? Alot of downpours? Not much rain?

[londonbarcelona]

Originally Posted by Russia25

How is the rain? Alot of drizzle? Alot of downpours? Not much rain?

No offense, but the weather is the PITTS! It IS grey much of the time. Now compare it to Erie, PA or Buffalo, NY and you might be able to argue that point. But if weather is important to you, Pittsburgh is one of the saddest places to live as far as the weather goes. Sorry.

[Russia25]

Originally Posted by londonbarcelona

No offense, but the weather is the PITTS! It IS grey much of the time. Now compare it to Erie, PA or Buffalo, NY and you might be able to argue that point. But if weather is important to you, Pittsburgh is one of the saddest places to live as far as the weather goes. Sorry.

That's what I feared. My family spent most of their lives and warned me of the weather.

[Humanoid]

Pittsburgh is considered one of the nicest cities in America to live in these days

It is? You could've fooled me.

Anyhow the weather in Pittsburgh isn't very nice. As someone else stated it is cloudy most of the time. The rain isn't so bad, when it rains it usually rains very hard for a few hours and thats that. The other issue is that it can get rather humid during the Summer.

[guylocke]

Weather is all a personal factor. If you have seasonal depression, you may not want to come to Pittsburgh, but weather has absolutely no correlation with quality of life or economy in this country.

It would all be complete personal preference. I personally enjoy Pittsburgh's weather because I love all four seasons and I actually like dreary days as well as sunny days.

To drive my point home, take the pacific northwest such as Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver. Those are 3 absolutely booming cities and the weather doesn't get much worse.

Doesn't seem to stop people from moving there! (including me *cough cough*)

I'm not moving cause I dislike Pittsburgh, I'm moving just to do it while i'm young So good luck to you!

In terms of actual Pittsburgh weather, fall and spring are absolutely gorgeous. I'm not sure you can get it much better. Winter is dreary but snow truly isn't a big problem in Pittsburgh and whoever says it is is lying. We haven't had major snow in over a decade. We get a few storms maybe a few times per year that drop a couple inches that clear up nearly overnight.

The thunderstorms are AMAZING. But the rain usually comes down hard for an hour or two and clears up. It's not a misty rain that lingers for days and days. The summers can get humid and uncomfortable for me, I don't particularly love the heat.

But overall, I think Pittsburgh weather is more than fine, but I guess you have to have a love for a little rain and overcast sometimes. Which, as a matter of fact, I do. It costs too much money to chase the sun, of which is poison and causes 90% of the aging process.

[Humanoid]

Those are 3 absolutely booming cities and the weather doesn't get much worse.

Sure it does....Pittsburgh, a lot of the mid-west, parts of the south etc. Pittsburgh has more cloudy days then all the cities you mentioned despite Seattle's rep.

Also, just to note Portland isn't exactly a "booming" city.

[BrianTH]

The most notable downside to Pittsburgh weather is that for a major city, Pittsburgh has a relatively high number of cloudy days. This, of course, is what the city's detractors usually cite, but that is not the only relevant factor when it comes to weather.

For example, on the positive side Pittsburgh actually does not get an excessive amount of annual or seasonal precipitation, which is because it doesn't get lake-effect snow and also doesn't get tropical storms (as an aside, the highest precipation places in the U.S. are in Alaska and Hawaii, and in the continental U.S., the highest precipation places tend to be around the Gulf of Mexico). Conversely, it also does not get an excessive lack of annual or seasonal precipitation. In fact, the relatively steady nature of Pittsburgh precipitation (versus the feast or famine, or I guess flood or drought, you get some other places) makes it a great place for gardening. The temperature extremes in winter and summer are also on the milder side for a non-coastal area. Pittsburgh also doesn't get much in the way of tornados, wildfires, or earthquakes (the last two categories are not weather conditions strictly speaking, but fit into a broader category of environmental conditions).

So overall I actually think the weather in Pittsburgh is pretty good. Again, it is isn't perfect, since you will in fact have a relatively high number of cloudy days, but conversely you will usually not experience a lot of the more severe weather (and other environmental) conditions that other places experience.

[BrianTH]

By the way, although not directly relevant to the weather issue, Pittsburgh does indeed tend to rank highly in the various "most livable" city rankings. Of course the results vary depending on the criteria and methodology, but Pittsburgh is usually in the top 20, and can be as high as #1. For example, it was #1 in the recent Places Rated Almanac rankings, #10 among U.S. cities in a recent Mercer survey, tied for #1 among U.S. cities in an Economist Intelligence Unit study, and so on.