Feb 25, 2018 3 min read

Laced among the clouds that have hovered during Southwestern Pennsylvania’s rainiest February, a silver lining. A glimmering silver lining.

The dire flood warnings for this weekend were largely rendered moot.

“We ended up with less rain than we anticipated,” said Tom Green, meteorologist for the National Weather Service near Pittsburgh International Airport.

Oh, the region was doused with a generous two inches of rain over the past four days, and there was a flood watch until 7 p.m. Sunday. But the precipitation that fell Saturday night into Sunday morning was less than forecast, easing fears of flooding, especially in the Mon Valley. Those fears appeared to have been allayed by mid-afternoon.

“All the rain is done,” Green said.

That was a relief in the Monongahela River towns near the Charleroi Locks & Dam, where flood stage is 28 feet. Green said around 3 p.m. that “we’re expecting the river to crest there at 25.6 feet. At this point, we don’t expect Charleroi to flood.”

Not far to the north, however, rising water could knock out Elizabeth Locks and Dam, said Jeff Hawk, spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Pittsburgh District.

Rising waters have had an impact on Pittsburgh proper. The Mon parking wharf “is under water and should be out all week,” Hawk said Sunday afternoon. The frequently flooded 10th Street Bypass, along the Allegheny River, was not flooded Sunday afternoon, but could be by Monday morning. It has been closed since Thursday evening, when the state Department of Transportation shut it as a precaution. And the rivers flowed over their banks in parts of Point State Park last week.

Flooding did not directly force the closure of any road in Washington and Greene counties over the weekend. But State Route 2011 – Bobtown Road/Garards Fort Road between Rocky Run and Creek Road in Dunkard Township – was shut in Greene because of a landslide. Jay Ofsanik, spokesman for PennDOT District 12 in Uniontown, who posted hourly road closures online Saturday night, said the only road in that district’s region to be closed Sunday was in Ligonier Township, Westmoreland County.

Rain has fallen in the Pittsburgh region 21 of 25 days this month, resulting in a total of nearly seven inches. That is a Pittsburgh record, eclipsing the previous standard of 6.52 inches established in 1887. (The National Weather Service has been keeping records since 1871.) Green said Pittsburgh averages 2.13 inches of rainfall in February – which, of course, doesn’t include snow.

It has been a drippy month, but there is that silver lining.