Pittsburgh Sunshine (Reading, Washington, Portland: electric, business, cities)

[onwardandupward]

Originally Posted by Tiger Beer

When I see clouds, it just means I don't have to squint so much....

My thoughts as well. While I love the occasional sunny day, too much sun just makes my eyes and head hurt.

[Citypoot]

Pittsburgh is its own SPF-40.

Anybody that's from here, and just survived this past winter, knows that there were babies born in December that were looking out the window in wonderment in April about what the large bright yellow ball was in the sky.

Pittsburgh winters can be BRUTAL. Let me define BRUTAL.

1- Are they as cold as some places in the lower 48? No...but close. Make no mistake. You're going
to be consistently bundled in many layers from mid November through mid April.

2- Are they as snowy as some places? No, but again, close. I'd say having a snow-covered ground
from December 15th through March 15th is probably a 50-50 bet any given day.

3- Are we as dreary as other places? No...we're WAY MORE dreary. I'm telling you right now. There's
weeks that go by, where not ONLY is there unbroken could cover, but I'm talking LOW CEILING
cloud cover...the type where you can't even guess where the sun is in the sky.

4- Here's a special nasty treat of Pittsburgh. Unlike Minneapolis, Denver, etc, where you at least get
precip in the form of pretty white snow in the winter, in Pittsburgh, those "moderate" winter
temperatures result in a ton of days with highs between about 28 and 38, which means you get
LOTS of days where it'll spit ice for an hour, then snow for an hour, then rain for an hour, then
the next day the sun will pop out for 2 hours before a new front comes in with freezing rain,
which changes to snow, etc.

The best word to define Pittsburgh winters is "snotty". The sky will be reliably depressing, and it will
spit a vast array of rain/sleet/snow/sorta snow/sleety rain/rainy ice/icy sumthins'/etc.

But despite all that negativity from me, this is the peculiar paradox. The city makes up for it's wristslitting winters SO MUCH in other ways, that i still consider Pittsburgh (and this is coming from a well traveled guy) one of America's all-around best cities. The people have such a hardiness in their attitude about their winter weather, that it's contagious. They actually get EXCITED during Steeler season when some sissy-weathered team like Miami/San Diego/San Fran/Tampa etc has to
come into our house and play in 33-degree ice/snow/sleet snottiness.

Pittsburgh has hair on its chest. That's the best way I can describe it.

[Mugatu]

LOL, exaggerate much Citypoot?

I moved here from Florida, and I found the winters to be hardly "brutal". They were actually much more mild than I was expecting. Like you mentioned, it's not as cold as some places and not as snowy as some places. To you that means "brutal" and "snotty", to me it means moderate.

Now this Feb...THAT was brutal. But that type of snow is a once every 10 years type of storm.

But I do appreciate your flair for the dramatic and expressive descriptions. lol Snotty and hair on it's chest. GREAT descriptions!

[Katarina Witt]

I think Pittsburgh's winters are mild compared to those in the midwest, mountain west and some other parts of the NE, such as Albany, NY where I once lived.

Pittsburgh does not get as much snow as many US cities at a similar latitude (40 degrees north), and while it does "snow on snow", there are many days in winter w/o snow cover.

[Fiddlehead]

Citypoot's description reminded me of when I spent a winter near Stockholm, Sweden. I do recall waiting for the bus one morning at -27 C (only -17 in F), but due to the Gulf Stream, the winter temps usually straddled freezing for months, which is actually very mild for 60 North. So, plenty of snow, but also plenty of very cold rain and mist all winter. Not pleasant. I really didn't mind though, that is what Snaps and Branvin were invented for. However, the lengths of the winter were what was brutal. What I like about Pittsburgh is that although winters seem gloomy and, frankly, not snowy enough for me, snow is nearby in the mountains, and four seasons appear to be about 3 months each, which I like. I don't mind cold Decembers, but the 7-8 month winters of Montana and Maine are something again.

[mike02]

Originally Posted by Citypoot

Pittsburgh is its own SPF-40.

Anybody that's from here, and just survived this past winter, knows that there were babies born in December that were looking out the window in wonderment in April about what the large bright yellow ball was in the sky.

Pittsburgh winters can be BRUTAL. Let me define BRUTAL.

1- Are they as cold as some places in the lower 48? No...but close. Make no mistake. You're going
to be consistently bundled in many layers from mid November through mid April.

2- Are they as snowy as some places? No, but again, close. I'd say having a snow-covered ground
from December 15th through March 15th is probably a 50-50 bet any given day.

3- Are we as dreary as other places? No...we're WAY MORE dreary. I'm telling you right now. There's
weeks that go by, where not ONLY is there unbroken could cover, but I'm talking LOW CEILING
cloud cover...the type where you can't even guess where the sun is in the sky.

4- Here's a special nasty treat of Pittsburgh. Unlike Minneapolis, Denver, etc, where you at least get
precip in the form of pretty white snow in the winter, in Pittsburgh, those "moderate" winter
temperatures result in a ton of days with highs between about 28 and 38, which means you get
LOTS of days where it'll spit ice for an hour, then snow for an hour, then rain for an hour, then
the next day the sun will pop out for 2 hours before a new front comes in with freezing rain,
which changes to snow, etc.

The best word to define Pittsburgh winters is "snotty". The sky will be reliably depressing, and it will
spit a vast array of rain/sleet/snow/sorta snow/sleety rain/rainy ice/icy sumthins'/etc.

But despite all that negativity from me, this is the peculiar paradox. The city makes up for it's wristslitting winters SO MUCH in other ways, that i still consider Pittsburgh (and this is coming from a well traveled guy) one of America's all-around best cities. The people have such a hardiness in their attitude about their winter weather, that it's contagious. They actually get EXCITED during Steeler season when some sissy-weathered team like Miami/San Diego/San Fran/Tampa etc has to
come into our house and play in 33-degree ice/snow/sleet snottiness.

Pittsburgh has hair on its chest. That's the best way I can describe it.

You couldn't have said it better! Pittsburgh winters are an adjustment and sunny or even partly cloudy days during winter are like holidays. This past winter it seemed Jan and Feb were by far the worst months. Just about everyday I would wake up to a bland white casting in the sky with no sunlight what-so-ever. Then March came and I was blinded by all the sunlight. Damn, what a change! Most days in March leaned more towards partly cloudy/sunny than cloudy. April was nice too. I would say Pgh compares to the rest of the Northeast from about April through October but you'll notice the winter months are much much tougher in Pgh because of the lack of sunlight. You will hate cloudy days after a winter there-- I'm only from the northeastern corner of PA (scr/wb) which has bad weather and a lot of cloudy days but winter up there gives you more breaks with some peaks of sunlight - not Pittsburgh's When i went to school there, it was late summer so the weather was pretty sunny and nice until like thanksgiving.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by Fiddlehead

Citypoot's description reminded me of when I spent a winter near Stockholm, Sweden. I do recall waiting for the bus one morning at -27 C (only -17 in F), but due to the Gulf Stream, the winter temps usually straddled freezing for months, which is actually very mild for 60 North. So, plenty of snow, but also plenty of very cold rain and mist all winter. Not pleasant. I really didn't mind though, that is what Snaps and Branvin were invented for. However, the lengths of the winter were what was brutal. What I like about Pittsburgh is that although winters seem gloomy and, frankly, not snowy enough for me, snow is nearby in the mountains, and four seasons appear to be about 3 months each, which I like. I don't mind cold Decembers, but the 7-8 month winters of Montana and Maine are something again.

You can count on some snow in Pgh in Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb, and March. I have also seen snow in April, May and October.

[Fiddlehead]

Originally Posted by Katiana

You can count on some snow in Pgh in Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb, and March. I have also seen snow in April, May and October.

Are you suggesting some snow=winter? I suppose for some people that would make sense. Out here in S. Oregon, I have seen snow before Halloween, and into April too, but I would not consider our winters all that long or harsh. Dear wife could not wait to leave Colorado (Fort Collins) because of the cold, but I found winters there to be easier than here (though neither place is very bad). All the sun and warm days made up for the occasional blizzards and cold snaps. So "winter" varies, depending upon the definition, and we each seem to have our own.

Although cold weather rolls through, do you think spring in late in coming, or pretty much arrives near the equinox in the Burgh? Like one of the descriptions above, spring for me is less about temps., but when the light comes flooding back in March or so. It is partly that the overcast breaks up a bit in the spring, and partly that the days get longer.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by Fiddlehead

Are you suggesting some snow=winter? I suppose for some people that would make sense. Out here in S. Oregon, I have seen snow before Halloween, and into April too, but I would not consider our winters all that long or harsh. Dear wife could not wait to leave Colorado (Fort Collins) because of the cold, but I found winters there to be easier than here (though neither place is very bad). All the sun and warm days made up for the occasional blizzards and cold snaps. So "winter" varies, depending upon the definition, and we each seem to have our own.

Although cold weather rolls through, do you think spring in late in coming, or pretty much arrives near the equinox in the Burgh? Like one of the descriptions above, spring for me is less about temps., but when the light comes flooding back in March or so. It is partly that the overcast breaks up a bit in the spring, and partly that the days get longer.

I am saying those are the months that I've seen it snow. Here are the actual temps for March 2010, and the averages for March in general. As you can see, the low on average does not stay above freezing until March 25. The actuals fluctuate a little more in March than say, January b/c it is starting to warm up. I've seen warm spring days the end of March, and I've seen snow.

History : Weather Underground

Spring seems to be a little ahead of here (Denver area), where things don't really start to come out until about May 1.

November is also a transitional month between fall and winter. The leaves are pretty much off the trees by Nov. 1 (in Pittsburgh). You could also check out some growing season stats.

[Fred Williamson]

Just as a point of reference, Pittsburgh had 203 cloudy days last year:

[url=http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/02/0226_miserable_cities/15.htm]America’s Unhappiest Cities: Pittsburgh, Pa. - BusinessWeek[/url]

Seattle had 201:

[url=http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/02/0226_miserable_cities/21.htm]America’s Unhappiest Cities: Seattle, Wash. - BusinessWeek[/url]

So yes, we do have more cloudy days than Seattle.

Also since this is my first post, I can't really post links so that's why they looked jacked up.