4 April 2024

This morning I checked NOAA’s National Water Prediction Service and saw there was a major flood today on the Monongahela River at Braddock Lock & Dam, just upriver from Duck Hollow. It looked like it would crest this morning …

… so I rushed down to Duck Hollow just after sunrise and here’s what I saw.

It was so deep that the parking lot garbage can was floating. Needless to say there were no barges or ducks on the river.

The birds were singing as I filmed the river at the mouth of Nine Mile Run.

Was I there for the crest? I took a two minute video while the water was rising. See the pink line indicating the high water mark in these slides from my video.

As it turns out the river crested today at 4:00am EDT.

The National Weather Service says we’ve broken the record for the wettest start of any year in Pittsburgh since record-keeping began in 1871.

No wonder there’s a flood.

(photos and videos by Kate St. John; diagrams from @NWSPittsburgh)

2 April 2024

CORRECTION (3 APRIL at 7am): When I first published this article, I didn’t realize I was using outdated maps so my analysis was wrong. NOAA changed to their mapping tool on 28 March; the new tool is much better. Maps, links and the flood assessment have been corrected.

Today (2 April 2024) it will be warm in Pittsburgh (71°F) but very wet with severe thunderstorms, 2-3 inches of rain, and up to 4 inches in localized downpours. There’s a Flood Watch through this evening for rivers, creeks, streams, and flood-prone locations.

It is unlikely that the Monongahela River will flood as much as it did in 2018, above in September, below in February. But it will reach flood stage.

The river is expected to rapidly rise Wednesday (3 April) and crest at 26.7 feet early Thursday (4 April), just below the moderate flood stage. As of Wednesday morning, it was over 21 feet.

— Post Gazette, 3 April 2024

Our streams, creeks and low-lying roads will be in trouble. Water could rise suddenly. Watch out for flash floods on a road near you.

The National Water Prediction Service provides a dynamic water prediction map for the entire U.S. updated with current conditions (circles) and water level predictions (squares around the circle). The colors on the 4/3/2024 at 9:00pm map below mean:

• Purple = Major Flood
• Red = Moderate Flood
• Orange = Minor Flood
• Yellow = just below or nearly at Flood Stage
• Green = no flood
• tiny blue dots mean No Data

The map shows that the Youghiogheny River at Sutersville, PA is in Major Flood (purple) and so are several places in Ohio.

Click here to see the current National Water Prediction Map for Pittsburgh.

If you’re curious about flood conditions and forecasts throughout the U.S., visit water.noaa.gov.

18 January 2024

Because the Earth’s axis doesn’t change how it tilts as it orbits the sun, the sun is higher in the summer sky and lower in winter. Meanwhile sunrise and sunset march north and south along the horizon from solstice to solstice.

You can see both effects in this composite photo by Tunç Tezel (The World At Night) showing the sun’s path at summer solstice, equinox and winter solstice in Bursa, Turkey, embedded from NASA APOD.

In my own way I’ve kept track of the same thing. When we lived in Greenfield our house faced west so I noted where the sun set for both solstices and the equinox. Now we face east and I haven’t done that yet for sunrise, but I already have some markers.

Here’s my eastern view at sunrise yesterday morning. This can be a marker.

I also have four photos of sun pillars which are good sunrise markers.

Put together on an eastern view photo, it looks like this. You can already see the sun marching along.

I did not add yesterday’s sunrise to the marker photo because it was too close to 11 January, but the sun did indeed move northward in 6 days. See composite photo below.

I’m well on my way toward completing the sunrise markers but it will take a year to do it. I need both solstices and the equinox.

Try it for yourself. Any horizon will do even if you’re in a valley. During one year take 3 to 12 photos, either just the solstices & equinox or one photo per month. Note the date and the sun’s location on the horizon. Put the markers on your horizon photo as I have done above.

So where did the sun come up today?

Ummm … Not today in Pittsburgh. It’s too cloudy to see the sun.

3 January 2024

As I mentioned last month, though winter is the best time of year to see the aurora borealis it is rare if not impossible to see it anywhere but in the far north. The photo at top was taken in Norway while the one below gives a different perspective from an airplane at 36,000 feet above Canada.

In both cases the photos were taken inside our atmosphere below the aurora. What if you could see the aurora from above?

On 21 January 2016 NASA astronaut Scott Kelly took photos of the aurora from the International Space Station (ISS) as it traveled over Canada. Here’s what the aurora looks like from above in his series of photos.

Aurora borealis over Canada, seen from ISS on 21 Jan 2016 (photos from Wikimedia Commons)

The ISS also saw the aurora australis, the southern lights near the South Pole, in July 2012.

Want to know if there will be an aurora soon and where it will show up? Check here for NOAA’s Aurora Viewline predition for tonight and tomorrow.