Fall-like weather is here in Pittsburgh, and so is the lack of daylight as Friday is "flip" day
It's nice that the weather is nice and comfy today, so it allows us to talk about something like our flip day, which we'll get into down below.
Right now it looks like our next chance to see rain is more than a week away. We did have frost advisories in place for higher elevations this morning, something I told you could happen yesterday morning. We did see communities in higher elevations falling to 37° and below in some isolated spots. Frost was not expected to be widespread and won't be.
Highs today will be near 70 degrees. I have Pittsburgh seeing a high of around 69°. Noon temperatures will be in the low 60s. It will be mostly sunny from start to finish today. Winds will be out of the northeast at around 5 mph.
The weekend will continue the pattern of mild mornings and pleasant afternoons. It's a busy one with Pitt, WVU, and the Steelers all playing at home, and the weather will cooperate. I have highs near 70 each day, with morning lows slowly ticking up. I have Saturday lows in the upper 40s and in the low 50s on Sunday morning. The Great Race is also on Sunday morning.
Looking at next week, highs should hit the 70s starting on Wednesday and continuing through Saturday. I do have a scattered rain chance on Wednesday evening.
Now, getting into our flip day: Today is one of the two days a year when we see 12 hours and two minutes of daylight today (sunrise at 7:11, Sunset at 7:13), compared to us seeing just 11 hours and 59 minutes of daylight on Saturday (sunrise at 7:12, sunset at 7:11).
You may remember in science class how the Earth's angle of slant is around 23.5°, as there is a little wobble, so it varies just slightly.
The slant, though, is always pointed in the same direction, with the Earth's north pole pointing directly away from the Sun at the start of winter. At the start of summer, the Earth's north pole is pointing directly towards the Sun. Interestingly enough, we are closer to the Sun at the start of winter than we are at the start of summer.
At the halfway mark, the equinoxes, if you draw a line between the Sun and the Earth, our poles will face at 90 degrees. This brings an equal amount of daylight and night to the Equator. Since we are not on the equator, it takes an additional couple of days before we make the flip. Today is that day. At the peak of our year, Pittsburgh sees 15 hours and 7 minutes of daylight. At the shortest part of the year, Pittsburgh sees just 9 hours and 17 minutes of daylight.