The heat continues in Pittsburgh on Friday, but now storm chances join the high temperatures

Day four of what we've been forecasting to be five days in a row with highs in the 90s happens today. Today is a sure thing when it comes to hitting the 90s. I will say Saturday is just likely to hit the 90s, but well-timed rain and storms could be enough to derail things there. 

Let's start with the heat before getting too far into rain chances. High temperatures will again easily hit the mid to low 90s with a ridge of high pressure being our dominant mid-level feature. The ridge means sinking air that, when compressed, warms up the air even more than usual. 

Yesterday we hit 93° for the high. I was a little bit surprised by that. I am going to keep us at 94 degrees for a high even though technically yesterday should have been the hottest day of the week. 

I think conditions today that are near as hot, sunny skies with rain chances holding off until after 6 p.m., and the fact that we continue to warm our air will allow us to hit 94 for the daily high. 

With the hot air in place, temperatures should already be near or in the 90s at 11 a.m. Skies will be sunny with a UV number of around 9 for the day. Winds will be coming in from the west at around 10 mph.

As the ridge of high pressure continues to break down, our 850mb temperatures will continue to tick down on Saturday. They peaked on Thursday. 850 mb temperatures are coming in at around 19°C. This puts the theoretical high temperature coming in around 93° to 94°. High humidity values should bring that number down closer to 90 degrees. 

The rain chance, if it arrives early, could be enough to keep us out of the 90s. Either way, Saturday morning will be warm with temperatures starting off close to 80 degrees. Noon temperatures should be near 90.

Starting on Sunday, rain chances along with cloudy skies should be enough to keep us out of the 90s. We should stay in the mid-80s for highs through the end of next week. 

Now let's get into our severe weather chances today and Saturday, which are low. Many will be dry, but I think probably around 60 percent of people out there will see at least some rain either today or tomorrow. Rain and storm chances peak after 6 p.m. both days, with any storms you see bringing a risk for strong winds, lots of lightning, and even a flash flood risk. 

The storm area will only be around 30 percent today. It'll be slightly higher, at 40 percent, on Saturday. 

Rain is expected to be fairly widespread both on Sunday (60%) & Monday (70%).