Don’t let the warm weather we’ve had this week fool you.
Though the calendar has flipped to spring, the cold isn’t ready to let us out of its clutches just yet.
The National Weather Service is calling for a significant temperature drop this weekend and snow flurries to boot, said Lee Hendricks, meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Moon. The higher terrain could see snow accumulation of 2 or more inches of snow in a 24-hour period.
Hendricks said the deteriorating weather forecast will begin with raw, wet weather in the form of isolated rain showers Friday.
“Colder air starts moving in from the northwest on Friday and after midnight rain showers will change over to snow showers,” he said. “Saturday will also be a mixture of rain and snow showers with winds occasionally gusting up to around 25 miles per hour.”
Hendricks said snow showers will begin again after midnight Saturday evening. He said no accumulation is expected in areas close to the city.
“At most, it will only be a dusting with temperatures falling into the upper 20s by sunrise on Sunday morning,” he said. “And then a 40% of snow showers during the day on Sunday with temperatures only getting into the mid 30s.”
What’s causing such a drastic change in the weather in late March when the expectation is for things to warm up? “We have a very strong cold front pushing through the area with a pretty good shot of cold air coming out of the high plains,” said Hendricks.
He said it’s not unusual for cold weather to creep in in late March or even early April in this part of the country.
“Early spring in Western Pennsylvania: One week it’s great, the next week you have snow showers,” he said. “It’s just kind of the nature of the beast being in the area just south of the Great Lakes.”
Hendricks said the Pittsburgh region will see March going out like a lamb, with temperatures reaching the mid 60s by next Wednesday.
