“Welcome August” sunrise, 1 August 2026, 6:06am (photo by Kate St. John)
1 August 2026
There was a spectacular sunrise this morning to usher in the month of August. As quickly as it built to fiery red with a sun pillar, it was gone.
On Thursday 30 July, Charity Kheshgi and I went birding at Frick Park where our most impressive sighting was not a bird. In the area south of the large deer exclosure on Clayton Hill we saw a 10-point buck browsing with a 4-point comrade. Both were still in velvet and were exhibiting the behavior I’ve often noticed in August in the City Parks. The deer kept their distance but were curious and generally unafraid of us. Their placid behavior changes in September for the rut — at which point stay away.
We only had our cellphones and wanted to take pictures but we kept our distance, too. Hence the photo quality.
10-point buck, Frick Park, 30 July 2026 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
A slideshow of my photos.
10-point buck in Frick Park, 30 July 2026 (photos by Kate St. John)
We also saw this beautiful flower, nodding onion (Allium cernuum), in the meadow near the Environmental Education Center. It thrives in the presence of so many deer because deer won’t eat it.
Nodding onion, Frick, 30 July 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
The photo at top shows the worst day in the Niagara Falls area as seen in St. Catharines on Wednesday 15 July. Pittsburgh’s worst day was Friday the 17th, shown in the video below.
The source is nearly 1,000 forest fires in northern Minnesota and western Ontario, most of them at least a 1,000 miles away. Across the continent there are many, many more. Here’s what’s burning in North America this morning according to NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System US/CANADA map.
… shown on the PurpleAir map(*), Friday 17 July 2026 at 6:42am EDT. I’ve made it tiny so you won’t confuse it with today’s map. Click on the image for a larger view.
Happily the air cleared Saturday at noon and air quality improved into the Orange zone (considered a high rating but alas fairly common Pittsburgh’s Mon Valley). I went out for a walk and, though it was nice to be outdoors, it was so humid I dripped with sweat.
Today’s air quality should be even better, right? Nooooo! It’s in the Red Zone.
This wildfire smoke comes to us on upper level winds that pass over the fire area before they reach us. (Wildfire smoke has risen that high!) This wind map from earth: a global map of wind, weather and ocean conditions shows the jet stream coming from the fire zone this morning (7:18am) and dipping south to reach us. Pittsburgh is the black dot.
On Saturday upper level winds were coming from the Great Plains so our air was better. (I’ve added a wobbly green arrow to Saturday’s map to point this out. Pittsburgh is the black dot.)
So I’m hoping the jet stream will wobble and give us good air. Then we’ll breathe easy.
And… a Huge Debt of Gratitude to Hudson Valley Weather on Facebook for their excellent description of the origin and persistence of the fires and upper-level transport. Their Facebook post is well worth a read.
p.s. (*) PurpleAir’s interactive map has a dot for each air quality monitor providing realtime data to their network. Some of the dots are government AQ monitors but most are individuals and organizations like GASP that want/need to know the air quality in their area.
Asiatic dayflower, Schenley Park, 11 July 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
18 July 2026
Before the smoke came to town I went on a long walk in Schenley Park and around the neighborhood this week. The captions tell the stories.
Flowers and a cooperative young rabbit in Schenley Park on 11 July.
Smoke-free sunrise on 12 July.
A lovely tiny weed in the cobblestone cracks + a deer eating her way through a front yard on Bayard Street, 13 July.
A dinosaur statue being repainted, photographed in media res on 2 July and complete on 14 July. (I prefer the 2 July version.)
Bindweed with insects, Schenley Park, 11 July 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)Young rabbit, Schenley Park, 11 July 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)Sunrise before the smoke, 12 July 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)Tiny pretty weed in the cracks, Japanese mazus, 13 July 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)Doe browsing on Bayard Street, 13 July 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)Doe browsing on Bayard Street, 13 July 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
Wildfire smoke in Pittsburgh before sunset 16 July 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
17 July 2026
Yesterday while I wrote about the raging wildfires in western Ontario, 1000 miles from Pittsburgh, their smoke was blowing in our direction. By 8:00am yesterday I could see it as faint haze. By sunset it had turned the sun orange. The smoke was so thick that John English did not need a filter to photograph the sun, complete with sunspot.
Sun in wildfire smoke, Homestead, PA, 16 July 2026 (photo by John English)
Since then the air has gotten worse and is dangerous for everyone.
The PurpleAir monitor network shows a large swath of hazardous air (maroon color) from Western Ontario through the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. Its path is amazingly well defined on the northern edge where you need only drive 50-60 miles to escape the smoke (green). I’ve drawn a white line at that edge. Click on the screenshot for a closeup of the white line. Click to see the live PurpleAir monitor map. Zoom in on their map to see the details.
GASP 06 Monitor in Allegheny County at 17 July 2026 8:01am
Observations:
Distant landmarks outside my window have disappeared. Notice the water tower in the sunrise picture is gone today.
Sunrise, 2 June 2026, 6:02am. Hills and water tower visible in the distance
Wildfire smoke in Pittsburgh, 17 July 2026, 7:20am. Nothing visible in the distance
I have seen very few birds flying. No hawks, no finches, no sparrows. Three chimney swifts came out this morning to check the air and went back to their roost. No swifts flying now.
Having lived in the Mon Valley airshed, I am all too familiar with the smell of Pittsburgh’s bad air. Yesterday it I was momentarily amazed the air does not smell like sulfur.
Indoor air quality is better that outdoors, but not best. Yesterday afternoon at 4pm I turned on my air filter and found out we were in the Red Zone. I’ve left it running since.
Indoor air quality on 16 July 2026, 4pm (photo by Kate St. John)
On the ground it is frightening. My first view of it was this raw footage from a Canadian National Railway (CN) freight train trapped by fire near Armstrong, Ontario. The engineer is on the radio calling for help. WARNING: THIS RAW FOOTAGE CONTAINS AN UNCENSORED WORD.
Today we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia in 1776, 250 years ago.
We often hear a sentence or two from the Declaration but it’s worth a look today to see how well it holds up. I have transcribed the beginning below. NOTE: I added 1 paragraph break for readability.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
I usually write about Birds & Nature. A natural event is in the photo at the top. On 10 June 2021 an annular solar eclipse was visible from parts of Russia, Greenland, and northern Canada. Those in Northern Asia, Europe, and the United States saw a partial eclipse. This is what it looked like near the Statue of Liberty. Photo by Anthony Quintano posted on Wikimedia Commons.
We’ve been living with extreme heat in Pittsburgh since Monday and we’re learning to cope, but it’s worth pointing out Extreme Heat will continue in the City and Allegheny Valley through Sunday 5 July.
We won’t really be out of the furnace until the work week begins on Monday. See slideshow below. Click on a slide to zoom it. 🙁
The sky at 1:00am on 4 July 2017, Tuusniemi, Finland
21 June 2026
Happy Summer Solstice!
By the time you read this the moment of the northern solstice will have passed in Pittsburgh on 21 June 2026 at 4:24 am EDT.
We usually have only one longest day per year but sometimes the solstice lines up to give us two days with the same number of hours, minutes and seconds. This is one of those years with 15 hours, 3 minutes and 50 seconds of sunlight both yesterday and today. (The day lengths probably differ in fractional seconds.)
At the location of the photograph at top in Tuusniemi, Finland, they will have 20 hours, 11 minutes and 30 seconds of sunlight today. Even two weeks after the solstice, when the photo was taken, the sky is not dark at 1:00am.
In Finland they have blackout curtains in their bedrooms. You might want some in yours as well since the sun will come up before 6:00am every day until 12 July.
Storm outside my window. Looking ominous. Nothing happened. 14 June 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
16 June 2026
One benefit of living in a high rise is having a good view of the sky. I see many birds in flight and I get to watch the sky in all its moods. This week the sky has been especially moody.
On Sunday morning, 14 June, the sun barely poked crepuscular rays through the clouds at sunrise.
Red sky at morn, sailors forewarn. Sunrise on 14 June 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
Later that day we had a Severe Thunderstorm Warning, then a Tornado Watch. The moody sky became ominous, photos at top and below.
Storm clouds outside my other window. 14 June 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
But nothing happened. Not even any lightning. The scary clouds passed over and it was gone.
This morning, a peaceful sunrise.
Peaceful sunrise, 16 June 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
Even more peaceful: Three days earlier the moon rose, too.
The day before the New Moon, 13 June 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
Northern magnolia with snow, 17 March 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
21 March 2026
The weather has been a yo-yo this week with a sunny high of 68°F on Sunday and 60°F on Monday. Then it started snowing hard at 6:00pm Monday. Three inches covered the City while at Pittsburgh’s weather station the snow was twice as deep. It set a new record for a yo-yo day.
Yesterday was the snowiest 60°F day we've seen in our records (dating back to 1948). Out here in Moon Township, the high was 60 degrees and we measured 6.3" of snow. pic.twitter.com/Clj9YCz6Wv
After the snow stopped, ragged clouds raced across the sky at 10:30pm, 16 March.
After the snow stopped, ragged clouds, 16 March 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
The next morning the sky was clear (see the meteor blog) and the snow began to melt. Dippy still wore a snow cloak at 10:50am.
Snow on Dippy, 17 March 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
Damage to northern magnolia flowers (photo at top) and red maples became evident.
Damaged red maple flowers in Pittsburgh, 17 March 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
But soon the sun had warmed the ground so much that steam rose from the mulch outside Carnegie Museum.
video by Kate St. John
Two days later it was again cold in the morning when four of us walked the Muddy Creek Trail at Moraine State Park. By noon it warmed up considerably. We found skunk cabbage and coltsfoot poking up through the snow.
Skunk cabbage at Muddy Creek Trail, Moraine State Park, 19 March 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)Coltsfoot beginning to open at Moraine State Park, 19 March 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
And we found out that it is Mud Season! … Melissa’s beagle, Henry, is keeping his paws clean.
Mud Season at Moraine State Park. Henry waits for us to continue walking, 19 March 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
March is supposed to come in like a lion and go out like a lamb. This week we saw lamb, lion, lamb.
10-point buck in Frick Park, 30 July 2026 (photos by Kate St. John)
