22 April 2026, Earth Day
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter. Pittsburgh had all four seasons in just four days, 17 to 20 April, 2026.
The graph below shows the rising and falling temperature in pale blue.
- 17 April: Spring, though a bit warm
- 18 April: Summer with a high of 82°F
- 19 April: Autumn low of 39°F, high 51°F
- 20 April: Winter. It certainly felt like winter! Low 34°F, high 47°F with a stiff wind that dropped the windchill. Winter persisted to 21 April when the low was 29°F.
Every day we had to dress for a different season and quickly learned not to put away our winter clothes.
Spring, 17 April: On the day it was Spring the flowers bloomed and we wore long sleeves and light jackets.
Summer, 18 April: On the day it was Summer, summer flowers bloomed and went to seed.
We wore our summer clothes to the Frick Park Environmental Education Center’s 10th Anniversary celebration with Tessa, Brooke and Delia. It was 82°F.
Autumn, 19 April: On the day it was Fall the plants could not pivot so quickly to fall colors. They were still spring green.
Winter, 20 April: On the day it was Winter — only two days after Summer — it was so cold at Raccoon Creek Wildflower Preserve that we wore our winter clothes. (I had on two hats, two scarves and double mittens.) Brrrr!
In keeping with the winter theme we found fallen oak leaves and partridge berry fruit.
This shagbark hickory knew Spring wasn’t here yet. It continued to protect its new leaves.
However, the ground looked like Spring anyway.
56 years ago, on the first Earth Day, the seasons changed slowly. Now that we’re dealing with climate change the weather changes abruptly. Four seasons in four days.
This Friday 24 April it will be Summer again (81°F).
p.s. The trail pictured above was completely flooded on 27 March yet fully recovered by 20 April. See photo/video of 27 March on Facebook –> flood at Raccoon Creek Wildflower Reserve.
p.p.s. I corrected the names in this article on 26 April — people on our Frick outing.