Monongahela River floods the Duck Hollow parking lot, 4 April 2024, 7:20am (photo by Kate St. John)
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.
Do you think this year we have seen a lot of ???? in #Pittsburgh? If you said YES, you are correct! 13.71" is the wettest start to the year on record (1871-2024).
Monongahela River flood at Duck Hollow, 10 Sept 2018 (photo by Kate St. John)
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CORRECTION (3 APRIL at 7am): When I first published this article, I didn’t realize I was using outdated maps so my analysis was wrong.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.
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:
Sunny and 75 degrees at Schenley Park, 4 March 2024 at 4pm (photo by Kate St. John)
9 March 2024
The weather doesn’t know what to do with itself in Pittsburgh. Some days it rains all day (today for instance). Some days it’s hot and sunny. Some days it’s chilly and overcast. This week we saw it all.
On Monday and Tuesday hot sunny weather (74-75°F) encouraged everyone to get outdoors. I waited a while to get a photo, above, without a lot of people in it. Just around the bend the sun was so low in the sky at 4:40pm that it made long shadows.
Long shadows and 75 degrees at Schenley Park, 4 March 2024 at 4pm (photo by Kate St. John)
That beautiful day came after a foggy rainy weekend, seen at Duck Hollow below. The Monongahela River was running high because of all the rain.
Duck Hollow, 2 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
All kinds of critters were busy this week including a striped red ant on a trail in Schenley Park. What ant is this? Can you tell me its name?
Striped red ant, Schenley Park, 4 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
Asian jumping worms on the sidewalk on Craig Street, 4 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
On Thursday 7 March I found new leaves of (maybe) corydalis at Todd Nature Reserve.
New corydalis leaves? Todd Nature Reserve, 7 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
And on the way home I stopped at the Tarentum Bridge to check on the peregrines. The male was perched nearby while the female incubated eggs in the nest. This (lousy) digiscope photo shows the female’s wingtips visible in the nest box as she incubates with her tail toward us. This is early for most peregrines in southwestern PA but not for this bird. She’s always early.
Female peregrine incubating at the Tarentum Bridge nest, 7 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
p.s. Don’t forget to turn your clocks AHEAD tonight. (egads! I fixed that awful typo. Thanks, everyone, for pointing it out.)
Coltsfoot closing at dusk, Schenley Park, 4 March 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
7 March 2024
Two days ago it was so balmy in Pittsburgh that we wore T-shirts outdoors. The high on Monday 4 March tied the 74°F record, honeysuckle leaves popped out and I found coltsfoot blooming in Schenley Park. The week before was warm, too. Here’s what was blooming Feb 23 to March 1.
The weather is going to turn cold this weekend. Will spring be dealt a setback on Sunday?
In my city neighborhood Saturday night’s predicted low will be 35°F, still above freezing and significantly above normal. The map below shows the low temperature anomaly predicted for this Saturday (Sunday’s map won’t be available until tomorrow). Sunday’s forecast says it will go down to 30°F, barely below freezing.
Sunrise in Pittsburgh, 7 Feb 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
10 February 2024
Beautiful sunrises, calm reflections and high water at Duck Hollow were on tap this week in Pittsburgh.
Wind-less clear skies along the Monongahela River at Duck Hollow, 4 Feb 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)Pastel sunrise on 8 Feb 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
The week began as Winter but ended even warmer than early Spring. The tulips in my neighborhood are well above ground, fortunately without flower buds. One week from today, on 17 Feb, the weather forecast calls for temperatures as low as 19°F.
These tulips think it’s already spring, Pittsburgh, 7 Feb 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
The tulips survive in my too-many-deer neighborhood because they’re surrounded by buildings and tall fences with no obvious exit other than a narrow driveway.
I thought that the maze of buildings and driveways would protect these Japanese yews in front of Newell-Simon Hall at Carnegie Mellon, but deer found their way in and munched the bushes down to sticks. There’s a lot more to eat here. The deer will be back.
Deer damaged yews at Newell-Simon Hall, CMU, 7 Feb 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
Sunrise in Pittsburgh, 17 Jan 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
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.
The eastern horizon at sunrise, 17 Jan 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
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.
Four sunrise points along my horizon (photo by Kate St. John with markup)
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.
Comparison of sunrise location on 11 Jan and 17 Jan in Pittsburgh (photos by Kate St. John)
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.
Sun pillar at sunrise, 11 January 2024, Pittsburgh (photo by Kate St. John)
13 January 2024
This week featured spectacular sun effects and high water.
On 11 January I captured this photo of a sun pillar at sunrise while Dave DiCello got an even better shot from the West End Bridge.
Another view from today's vibrant sunrise, this time from the West End Bridge in #Pittsburgh. Not only was the color still so vibrant by the time I got there, but there was a sun pillar that was reflecting in the river as well. What a great morning to run around the city. pic.twitter.com/vrjfuAV91Q
Friday’s sunrise was spectacular in a different way.
Spectacular sunrise on 12 January 2024, Pittsburgh (photo by Kate St. John)
Tuesday 9 January produced the classic Gleam at Sunset in which a day of thick cloud cover ended with a gap on the western horizon and 30 minutes of sun. Here’s what the gap looked like just after sunset from the roof deck of my building.
The Gleam at Sunset looking west, 9 January 2024, Pittsburgh (photo by Kate St. John)
Twenty minutes earlier I had viewed the gleam from below when it lit the tops of trees and buildings … like this.
The Gleam at Sunset lights a treetop, 9 January 2024, Pittsburgh (photo by Kate St. John)
Meanwhile we’re only 13 days into January and have already had 2.24 inches of precipitation — 1.06 inches above normal for the month. All that water ends up in the rivers so it’s no wonder that the Monongahela River was running high at Duck Hollow on 11 January.
Some trees are up to their ankles in water along the Monongahela River at Duck Hollow, 11 January 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)High water on the Monongahela River at Duck Hollow, 11 January 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
Watching gulls at the Point, Pittsburgh, PA, 31 Jan 2015 (photo by Tim Vechter)
11 January 2024
Only a few days ago I was lamenting that we weren’t having a snowy winter, neither snow nor snowy owls. Well, be careful what you ask for! A few days of bitter cold are coming to Pittsburgh next week. If Lake Erie freezes, arctic gulls will fly south to find open water on the rivers. The photo above shows some cold and happy birders looking at rare gulls at the Point in January 2015.
So what are the chances this will happen next week?
As of this morning, the forecasted low temperature for dawn on Wednesday 17 January is 9°F. This map for next Monday sure looks like we’re in a “polar vortex.” Cold, right?
But will it be cold long enough to freeze Lake Erie and send the gulls south? Probably not. The eastern Great Lakes ice map as of yesterday, 10 Jan 2024, shows nearly 100% open water (white).
There’s not even a hint of ice (blue) on most of Lake Erie and the Great Lakes ice-to-date graph for winter 2023-24 indicates that ice is at a near record low. There’s a lot of cooling off to do before the lakes will freeze.
So next week I’ll have to wear my Minnesota gear to go outdoors but it’s unlikely there will be any unusual birds out there. Will I want to go out in 9°F anyway? I’ll have to wait and see.
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.
We usually take for granted that even on a clear night there aren’t many stars to see. When the news reminds us to watch for an astronomical event such as the Geminid meteor shower on 13 December, we realize that most of us have to drive somewhere to find a dark sky. Even rural skies show fewer stars than a dark sky site, and Dark Sky locations are getting harder to find as light pollution proliferates.
