Jul 3, 2024 3 min read

If you haven’t made it to Kennywood yet this summer to ride the Thunderbolt, Jack Rabbit or Racer, never fear! We’ve already had enough excitement (though not nearly as much fun) with rollercoaster temperatures not to mention an incredible number of tornadoes and severe storms with drenching rain.

The National Weather Service did damage surveys late last week and confirmed that no fewer than five tornadoes hit our region last Wednesday night alone. One of them was rated an EF1 with 90 mile per hour winds starting near the intersection of Old Steubenville Pike Road and Route 22 on the Washington and Allegheny County border. An EF0 tornado with winds of 80 miles per hour also touched down Wednesday night near Mt. Morris in Greene County. The other three tornadoes appeared in parts of Allegheny, Westmoreland and Indiana counties. That brought the total number of tornadoes hitting Southwestern Pennsylvania this year to 17 – an unprecedented number.

Pennsylvania in total has had 19 so far this year, West Virginia has had 18 confirmed tornadoes, and Ohio has been hit with an unbelievably high number of 62 tornadoes so far in 2024. And we’re only halfway through the year! There’s still a lot of summer left, which is a stormier season, and fall sees a secondary peak for severe weather in our part of the country.

Though we had many rounds of thunderstorms and severe weather in June, Pittsburgh actually ended the month on a dry note, measuring only 2.50 inches of rain for the month. That total wound up being 1.62 inches below normal rainfall for June. April and May were both very warm and very wet, so we still are sitting at more than six inches above normal precipitation for the year.

Speaking of the heat, five days in June hit highs in the lower to mid-90s. Pittsburgh usually sees an average of around 10 90-degrees days per year, but they normally happen in late summer and early fall rather than in June. The month ended up 3.5 degrees warmer than normal and 19 days in June averaged above normal temperatures in Pittsburgh. The coolest temperature all month was the morning of June 1, which dipped to 47 degrees. It was all up from there, with the highest temperature hitting 94 degrees four different days.

Although we’ve had more than our share of stormy weather the past month (and definitely since May 1), our lawn sure could use some more rain. It’s so brown and crunchy, I’m afraid to mow it, if it even needs it. My neighbors have mowed in the past week, but we just let ours sit and be brown. Who wants to mow in 90-degree heat?

This week will still feature some upper 80s, but no searing temps are in the near-term forecast. That means it’s finally time to trim the hedges and fill in some spots with mulch. Labor Day will be here before we know it!

Kristin Emery can be reached at kristinemery1@yahoo.com.