what's the real story on Pgh Climate? (Pittsburgh, Beaver: houses, to live)

[Mikey M]

I'm a native so californian, whom has traveled extensively
and also lived in cold climates (North Idaho & Wilmington De),
now I'm moving to Pittsburgh.

Is it true that Pgh, is foggy, overcast, wet & very cold, most of the winter?

Is it true there are more, of these type days than there are days with "Broken Clouds" or "Sunny", on (on average year round)?

Is it like Seattle, very often grey skys and drizzling, for days or even weeks on end?

Any frank comments would be greatly appreciated!

[Katiana]

Mikey M;548105]I'm a native so californian, whom has traveled extensively
and also lived in cold climates (North Idaho & Wilmington De),
now I'm moving to Pittsburgh.

Is it true that Pgh, is foggy, overcast, wet & very cold, most of the winter?

Is it true there are more, of these type days than there are days with "Broken Clouds" or "Sunny", on (on average year round)?

Is it like Seattle, very often grey skys and drizzling, for days or even weeks on end?

Any frank comments would be greatly appreciated!

Q #1: yes

Q #2 yes

Q # 3 Not really, but there is a 50% chance of precip every day. You can find lots of weather stats on accuweather.com or wunderground.com

[South Range Family]

I have a few thoughts on this. I lived there for ten years, and have been working there for the past 20. The charts say an average of 75 sunny days per year. I think that is skewed. White fluffy clouds moving throughout the the day is what you probably get the most of. With plenty of blue sky and sunshine in between them. You can probably count on rain about once a week. A lot less in July and the beginning of August.

I lived on top of a hill in Beaver County. It always seemed to be sunny up there. When I went down the hill in the morning, it always seemed dark and cloudy. The reason, is fog coming from the Ohio River. I drive from the Pittsburgh Airport to Ohio every morning. As I drive North on route 60 the sun is usually shining in my rearview mirror. As I pass Center Township, I can see a huge dark cloud in the valley in front of me. The auto headlights on my car turn themselves on. I cross the Ohio River and climb the hill to Brighton Township, and pop back out into the warm sunshine again. There are many towns built along the entire river valley. These people see the dark clouds every morning and think that the entire area is like this. When the sun was shining at my house, I could see the shadow of the mountain being cast on houses below me everyday. That would have to get old after a while.
As the old saying goes.... Crap runs down hill. If you live at the top of the hill, you should be fine.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by Mikey M

Is it true that Pgh, is foggy, overcast, wet & very cold, most of the winter?

Compared to where you're coming from, yes.

Originally Posted by Mikey

Is it true there are more, of these type days than there are days with "Broken Clouds" or "Sunny", on (on average year round)?

We're having one of those completely overcaste days today. The weather statistics say that we have complete cloud cover mostly. I personally think we have more broken cloudy days than anything else. Overall thoughout the year, I think broken clouds take the lead, then overcast days, with sunny days being the least. But the statistics say overall overcast days, then broken clouds, then sunny days. Moderator cut: linking to competitors sites is not allowed

Originally Posted by Mikey

Is it like Seattle, very often grey skys and drizzling, for days or even weeks on end?

The warm fronts and cold fronts move through here rather often and very quickly. Whatever our weather, it seems last a week or two then it changes again for another week or two when a new weather front comes through. Most fronts bring some sort of rain or a storm. Sometimes the rain only lasts 20 minutes while the front is coming through. Other times the front brings a days of straight rain, but then the next front brings good weather.

When you realize that a storm beings in better or worse weather, you actually start looking forward to a storm if the weather is bad. For instance, I can't stand the humidity so when it's super humid in the summer, I look forward to the next storm because it almost always bringing in less humid weather. On the flip side, if the humidity is at a comfortable level, I dread a new storm coming through because I know it's going to bring higher humidity in the new weather front.

The difference between Pittsburgh and Seattle is that Pittsburgh isn't really a drizzle city. We get storms more than drizzle, but our storms don't generally last all day. Mind you, the clouds last all day though. The good thing is that the weather forecasts are fairly accurate here so you can plan your activities up to a week in advance with a level of confidence. Once you get a feel for the wather, you'll be able to interpret the forecasts better---you'll know that the forecast for the next 3 days is fairly certain, and the forecast for farther out into the week can vary by a day. If 7 days out shows 3 days of good weather, you can plan with confidence. If 7 days out shows 2 days of good weather and a day of rain, you need to wait until closer to the date to get a more accurate idea of which day the rain is really going to come.

Originally Posted by Mikey

Any frank comments would be greatly appreciated!

I personally like our weather, but some people who are from sunny areas of the country, like Kansas, find Pittsburgh's lack of sunshine depressing. When you consider that Kansas has almost 300 days of sunshine and Pittsburgh has almost 300 days of some type of clouds, that's a stark difference. I would have an equally difficult time moving to an area where the sun is bright all the time.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by South Range Family

I have a few thoughts on this. I lived there for ten years, and have been working there for the past 20. The charts say an average of 75 sunny days per year. I think that is skewed. White fluffy clouds moving throughout the the day is what you probably get the most of. With plenty of blue sky and sunshine in between them. You can probably count on rain about once a week. A lot less in July and the beginning of August.

I agree. I truly think we get more partly cloudy days than complete cloud cover days. Perhaps the skew in the statistics is because there might be complete cloud cover often in the morning, but it usually burns off in the late morning leaving blue sunny skies with big fluffy white clouds rolling through. But winter is mostly grey skies, that's for sure.

[Katiana]

Re: cloudy days - I think the National Weather Service has some specific definition of "cloudy", "partly cloudy" and "clear". We do not really have 300 cloudless days out here, though that is what the stats say. We probably do have 300 days with a high percentage of possible sunshine. (Just to give an example.)

[claremarie]

Today's date is April 7th, 2007. Right now it's about 28 degrees outside with a snow squall.

To be completely fair, here in the DC area, where the cherry blossoms have already finished blooming, we woke to snow on the ground this morning and a cold, blustery wind with more snow flurries. It's not 28, but it's well below normal April temperatures.
But also to be fair, Pittsburgh's weather is NOT its strong point. The winters are cold, wet, and grey, and the summers are not very sunny. Those who grew up in Pittsburgh might not notice, because it's what they are used to, but it's quite a change for people coming from most other areas of the country. My parents, who have spent their whole lives in Pittsburgh, are constantly amazed when they visit us in DC to see how often the sun shines here. all year round.

[Tallysmom]

Originally Posted by Mikey M

I'm a native so californian, whom has traveled extensively
and also lived in cold climates (North Idaho & Wilmington De),
now I'm moving to Pittsburgh.

Is it true that Pgh, is foggy, overcast, wet & very cold, most of the winter?

Is it true there are more, of these type days than there are days with "Broken Clouds" or "Sunny", on (on average year round)?

Is it like Seattle, very often grey skys and drizzling, for days or even weeks on end?

Any frank comments would be greatly appreciated!

I think I can put it best by saying that for a few years, my father decided to investigate being a gentleman farmer. On a large patch of lawn he cleared, he planted rows of corn, beans, tomatoes, lettuce, squash -- just tons of veg...

And they all did really fine. By July 4th we had our first corn in and were eating the last of the lettuce -- what a barbecue that was! With our own tomatoes on top of the burgers....

Now -- if the weather was truly so horrid with no sunshine in the summer tomatoes wouldn't ripen (I can't grow them out here in the Bay Area, unless I use SF Fog tomatoes -- bleh), and corn would take forever to tassel and grow...

But it isn't bright cloudless skies day in and day out (I live with that here and trust me -- even that gets OLD).

It's hard to quantify the weather by numbers, you have to live with it.

[Mugatu]

I moved to Pittsburgh from Florida last August, so I think I'm qualified to answer this. lol

I personally think the weather up here is not nearly as bad as some people make it out to be. I grew up in Florida and lived there for 30 years, so I was prepared for a big shock to the system in regard to the weather, but I adapted very quickly to the Pittsburgh climate. When I moved up in August, there were 2 straight weeks of PERFECT weather. Sunny skies with highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s. 2 out of the 3 times I visited Pittsburgh before moving were sunny days too. So the sun DOES shine in Pittsburgh.

Even in the winter, it wasn't that bad. The first half of the winter was very mild, with temps in the 50s and 60s, then the cold arrived in mid-January where we had a few days of below zero temps and one big winter storm. I'm looking out the window right now at light snow, but the sun was out earlier this morning. But we had sunny 80 degree weather last Tuesday! But coming from Florida where there are no seasons, I really enjoy the variety of the weather up here. It's really the locals who never lived anywhere else that complain about the weather the most. If they lived through one Florida hurricane, they'd be begging for Pittsburgh's weather.

[guylocke]

I want to add about Seattle rain.

Pittsburgh rain and Seattle rain are a LOT different from one another. There can be rain in Seattle every single day non-stop for days at a time. The difference is in the rain. Seattle will get a light drizzle or mist all day long.

Pittsburgh usually gets downpours for maybe an hour and then the skies will clear up and it'll be beautiful. And if it stays cloudy, at least the rain is short-lived!

EDIT: Oops! Just saw Hopes had already posted something similar! HAH!