From the 60s to frigid and back again
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Christmas Day’s high of 60 degrees in Pittsburgh put us in the record books with the sixth warmest Christmas for Pittsburgh since records started being kept back in 1871. And 2021 ranks eighth with a high of 58 degrees. The warmest was 67 degrees, set back in 1895.
Last year is on track for becoming the second least snowy year on record for Pittsburgh, just 2.2 inches above the 1998 record. The period of record began in 1880.
Pittsburgh received only 1.1 inches of snow in December, which is 6.6 inches below normal;
1998 saw 10.9 inches, and 2023, 13.1 inches.
Looking back at 2023, Pittsburgh had only one day this entire year with more than 2 inches of snow. One day! On Jan. 22, 2023, we received 2.2 inches of snow. When looking at maximum 24-hour snowfall amounts for a calendar year, that is the lowest amount in our record books. Normal snowfall for Pittsburgh is 44.1 inches.
Last year was also the seventh warmest year on record for Pittsburgh. The coldest days of 2023 were Feb. 3 and 4, when the temperature dipped to 5 degrees.
As far as snowfall is concerned, hardly any fell in November and December. It started the first week of January, and we had 9.9 inches the entire month in Pittsburgh. That’s just over an inch above normal. For the season, we are sitting at 11.6 inches, which is 7.7 inches below normal.
Pittsburgh dipped to 8 and 7 degrees overnight officially the week of Jan. 15, and while surrounding areas saw even colder temperatures, that still wasn’t as cold as Feb. 3 and 4, 2023, when Pittsburgh hit 5 degrees for low temperatures. Our wind chills have been below zero several nights last month, so it did feel even colder!
January did see single-digit lows with negative wind chills. We didn’t rise above freezing for eight days starting Jan. 14.. Now the thaw is on and temperatures rebounded back to normal in the upper 30s and kept soaring into the 40s and 50s. We were running nearly five degrees below normal for temperature during the first half of January. Once the deep freeze set in, our average temperature for the month dropped and we were overall near “normal” for the monthly temperature. Now that number has inched upward once again.
After a mild winter of 2022-23 and a warm, snow-free start to this winter, we really can’t complain about two weeks of cold and snow followed by yet another thaw.