If you are enjoying the damp, dank start to spring then get ready (Philadelphia: credit, college)

[Craziaskowboi]

What can I say? I get mad when people deny facts that are staring them straight in the face.

[mike02]

Originally Posted by Picksburg Stillers

One thing to note about that chart is that it is an average from 1953-2000. Until the steel mills started closing, Pittsburgh was very much an industrial town and with accordingly high levels of air pollution, and high levels of air pollution are known to affect the amount of cloud cover. It would be interesting to see what the average is for say the last 15 years only. It would not surprise me to see the % of sunlight hours inching upward.

Excellent point! I've mentioned that before. How can every single city to the east (Philly, NYC, DC, Boston) and to the west (Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Chicago) all have 60% + sunshine throughout the summer, while Pittsburgh has slightly below that? It's highly possible that the days of the steel mills affected it. There was an article I found that said London's % of possible sunshine increased after many factories closed down. Also, I've lived in Philly and Scranton. The summers are equally sunny. I didn't notice a difference. Wanna know the difference between Pgh and Philly in the summer? If you're guessing sunshine, sorry it ain't one of them. It's temperature and the humidity, although it's not a huge difference.

There's plenty of sun in both cities during the summer to tan, dry you off after a swim, make you sweat, and can cause you to dehydrate. For fair skin folks, you definitely need sunscreen in Pittsburgh during summer. Of course we don't get endless clear sunny skies for 12 hrs/day, 7 days of week. Neither does any other Northeast city. But throughout the day we receive more sunshine than cloud-cover. So, it's highly possible that Pittsburgh averages over 60% sunshine during summer. April and May tend to be 50/50, although April sometimes can have more sunshine than May and vice-versa. April is at 46%, which on any given year can be over 50%. Our Novembers seem a lot sunnier than the avg. of 36%, although late Nov. tends to lean more cloudy.

[mike02]

Here's a link to a forum about someone who moved from Pittsburgh to Chicago this year and is complaining about Chicago's cold, grey, rainy spring. The OP there thought that was the norm for Chicago and pointed out that Pittsburgh seemed warmer and sunnier. Of course, both Chicago and Pittsburgh are both suffering from this unusual rainy and crappy spring (except these past few days). It reminded me how steelcityrising moved here and complained about Pgh's crappy weather this year and thinks this is the norm.

//www.city-data.com/forum/chica...chicago-5.html

WE ARE NOT ALONE!

[BorninPittsburgh]

Gnutella, It was 93 and sunny in Athens, GA today. Not to your liking, but I love it! Pittsburgh is an awesome city, but the main reason that I would never move back there is because of the cold, cloudy weather 6 mos. a year. I get Seasonal Affective Disorder after two days of cloudy weather.

[Annie53]

Took me two days but I got my yard mowed.......finally.......the first time this year. What a mess.........mowed high.....raked the grass up.....mowed again........looking good!

Most of the yard is still "soft", but didn't make too many tracks and used the push mower on the real wet spots........oh how I hate these wet springs!

Now, rain scheduled for the next 5 days......sure hope it is not a lot. Next dry day......Tues. of next week, fingers crossed that we get enough dry days to keep the grass at a managable height. ......that means no more raking required!

[Craziaskowboi]

Originally Posted by BorninPittsburgh

Gnutella, It was 93 and sunny in Athens, GA today. Not to your liking, but I love it! Pittsburgh is an awesome city, but the main reason that I would never move back there is because of the cold, cloudy weather 6 mos. a year. I get Seasonal Affective Disorder after two days of cloudy weather.

Honestly, I like weather extremes. It gives people something to talk about.

By the way, I've mentioned before that if the weather is warm or hot, then I prefer it to be sunny, and if the weather is cool or cold, then I prefer it to be cloudy. This is why Pittsburgh's weather doesn't bother me too much, because it tends to follow such a pattern. Sunny but cold just annoys the **** out of me, and warm but cloudy just seems like a waste.

Another thing I ought to add: I've noticed that Pittsburgh in the summer tends to be cloudy early in the morning, but then the clouds burn off around 9AM, and it's sunny to partly cloudy the rest of the day. Those first three hours of missed "potential sunshine" from 6AM to 9AM are probably why Pittsburgh remains at less than 60% potential sunshine during the summer months. But even that's OK with me, because like I've said before, I prefer to get acclimated to bright light when I wake up in the morning, so starting off with clouds and then having them burn off is perfect.

Now Pittsburgh just needs a couple of 100-degree days sometime soon. It's overdue; the last time it happened was in 1995.

[Caladium]

FWIW my friends liked the weather you guys had while they were visiting Pittsburgh. Thunderstorms in the afternoon can be kind of fun.

[bradjl2009]

Originally Posted by Gnutella

Now Pittsburgh just needs a couple of 100-degree days sometime soon. It's overdue; the last time it happened was in 1995.

Keep that in your dreams! If I wanted 100, I'd go to Arizona in the summer.

[bradjl2009]

Originally Posted by Sigma67

The weather will never get better! I was born & raised there moved away a year ago to the South and have never looked back! Waking up every morning to sunshine is absolutely amazing!!

Hope you're enjoying the tornadoes, Mississippi River flooding, and drought.

[Rosabel]

I don't mind cool and overcast weather, although I could do without rain. I try to get in a fair amount of outdoor exercise (don't always succeed, though!), and it is much, much more pleasant on a cool and cloudy day than on one of the beautiful sunny days when the blazing sun gets in your eyes and you sweat like a pig and have to stop every thirty seconds to gulp down some water.

Overcast days for me!