Pittsburgh area could see severe storms with very low tornado risk
The Pittsburgh area could see severe storms on Wednesday, including a very low tornado risk.
The waves of rain that impacted the area during the morning hours steadily moved out of the Pittsburgh metro area around midday.
The clearing of clouds combined with strong southerly flow will allow temperatures to briefly peak in the low 60s this afternoon —especially from Pittsburgh south and west. The warming trend will lead to some instability in the atmosphere, supporting an isolated to widely scattered severe storm threat.
The timeframe to watch for anything severe will be from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. across western Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia. Some of these cells will pulse up and produce small hail (the size of a pea to a quarter) along with gusty outflow winds.
There is also enough low-level wind shear to support a weak tornado risk and funnel clouds as well, so people should remain vigilant to watches and warnings if they are issued by the National Weather Service.
Snow to follow storm threat
Temperatures will drop quickly between 6 p.m. and midnight along with gusty west winds, mostly cloudy skies and a few showers. These showers will transition over to snow showers after midnight with snow showers lasting most of the morning into the afternoon.
Snowfall amounts will be light with the lowlands west of Pittsburgh receiving an inch or less. The Laurel Highlands and Ridges could receive between 1 to 3 inches with locally higher amounts. Also, I-80 counties could receive around 1 to 2 inches, especially those locations that are closer to the lakes.
There will be a break once this system passes Thursday night into Friday morning, but another disturbance will be right on its heels. This will carry a chance of rain mixing with snow Friday afternoon into the predawn hours of Saturday morning. Seasonably cool temperatures are expected this weekend into next week before we see moderate to well above average temperatures toward the middle of next week.
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