Scattered afternoon storms could bring more flood risks to the Pittsburgh area

Scattered afternoon storms could bring more flood risks to the Pittsburgh area.

Any Alert Days Ahead? None for now. Today could become one, depending on afternoon storm coverage and intensity. Thursday and Friday have a chance to become First Alert Weather Days. The chance is high that Friday will become one.

Aware: Significant parts of our area are included in NOAAs WPC Excessive Rain report (where flash flooding could occur) every day over the next five days. 

Here we go again. A number of small factors will come together this afternoon to bring a significant flash flood risk to our area. At this point, I have our coverage area of rain today looking very similar to yesterday, with scattered slow-moving storms around for most of the afternoon. There will be a number of places that don't see any rain, but more people will see rain today than won't see rain. The issue is that any storms that develop will be slow movers, dumping big rain totals on areas.

The ingredients for flash flooding (high moisture, warmth, weak boundaries that cause lift, and weak steering winds) will remain in place through Saturday. Any thunderstorm activity you see will have the potential to cause flooding. Today's highest rain chance will come southeast of Pittsburgh. This is an area where some communities saw more than 4 inches of rain, according to radar estimates. That's an impressive amount of rain. In most cases, that is equal to what you'd expect to see all month long. 

Clearly, it won't take much to see flooding in these communities over the next couple of days. Unfortunately, we will continue to have a risk of storms with the potential of flash flooding through Saturday. Yes, I can't rule out flash flooding over the next five days across parts of our area. Flash flooding is flooding that occurs within six hours after rain comes to an end.  It is one of the more dangerous weather events, with flooding being the number one killer of Americans each and every year.

When it comes to your temperature forecast, I have highs today hitting the mid to low 80s.  I have Pittsburgh's high temperature hitting 83 degrees, with noon temperatures right at 80. Skies will be mostly cloudy to overcast. Highs remain in the mid to low 80s over the next couple of days, with morning lows barely dipping below 70 degrees. Humidity levels will briefly dip late Saturday into Sunday.