Wet weather continues into the weekend in Pittsburgh, rain possible for Steelers' opener

Our wet pattern continues into the weekend. A warm front and mid-level area of low pressure will slide by Saturday. This will bring a chance of rain for the afternoon, with rain chances peaking late afternoon into the evening. Severe weather, including wind storms, can't be ruled out. Currently, flooding is the main concern, though, with rain totals in some areas potentially surpassing 2 inches. 

Today is going to be dry with low dew points for the day. I have Pittsburgh seeing a high of around 80 degrees with sunny skies and light northerly winds. 

Things will change tomorrow morning as a warm front sweeps through around 8 a.m.; dew points will rapidly rise for the remainder of the morning, with storms around for the afternoon. Saturday highs will be in the low 80s. 

Storm chances remain in place on Sunday, but most of the day is looking dry. I really think the Steelers game will be dry, but I can't guarantee it. Sunday highs should be in the mid-80s. We stay hotter than average on Tuesday and Wednesday, after we see a high of just 78 on Monday. 

I have highs in the mid to upper 80s on Tuesday and Wednesday next week.   

Storms could also cause some delays in getting football and soccer matches in.

One of the things that has been driving our severe weather and big rain totals lately has been high dew points and precipitable water values. Let's specifically dive into dew points for a bit. The dew point is 'a measure of moisture at the surface.' This is one of the main things drilled into meteorology students starting in MET 101. 

What does that actually mean, though? 

Water, in the form of vapor, is present in the air. The amount of vapor that can be carried is dependent on a couple of factors, including air temperature. The warmer the air, the more water vapor that can be carried. So the dew point is the air temperature at which the current amount of water vapor would reach 100 percent saturation. 

This means it's the point where no more water vapor can be carried in the air unless the temperature warms up or water vapor condenses and turns into a liquid. 

While that is what the dew point is, there is a slew of tools that we use that the dew point is a key part of. One of those is storm energy, or what we call CAPE. I am not going to get into all the particulars, but moist air has more energy than dry air. So the higher the dew point, the more energy there is for storms to develop. I say this as I show you this chart that shows the difference between normal years and this year when it comes to how much moisture (dew point) has been in the air so far this year. The red dot is 2026, and the blue dot is the average of all other years. The further to the right you go, the warmer the dew point, and the chart shows that when it comes to the warmer dew points, we are well ahead of where we normally would be. 

When it comes to the further left and the lower dew points, we are well behind. This is exactly what you'd expect when it comes to seeing a 'wet' year. So far this year, we are running a beefy 8.28" ahead of normal when it comes to rain totals. That's about 130 percent higher than 'average.'