Tarentum's Hebe statue welcomes arrival of fall

It may not feel like it, but autumn is here — and Tarentum’s Hebe statue is ready for it.

Fall officially arrived at 3:50 a.m. Monday.

At the borough’s end of the Tarentum Bridge, which sees some 30,000 vehicles daily according to PennDOT, the statue of Hebe is sporting a scarf in the borough’s colors of red and black and black earmuffs thanks to Cindy Homburg. Hebe is the Greek goddess of youth.

Homburg, an unofficial borough historian, dresses Hebe for each season and for special events and holidays, such as Christmas, Halloween, Labor Day and the Fourth of July.

Homburg dressed the statue for fall on Sunday.

“She’s ready to go,” she said.

The 5-foot, 500-pound statue now standing at the bridge has been there since 2014, when the previous, 102-year-old statue there was replaced after being destroyed in a hit-and-run accident.

While Hebe might be sporting a scarf and earmuffs, real people probably won’t be needing them any time soon, according to the National Weather Service.

Temperatures are expected to be in the upper 70s through the week and back into the 80s over the weekend, meteorologist Jared Rackley said.

Sun and dew points in the mid-60s made it feel even warmer than it was on Monday.

The Climate Prediction Center is forecasting above-average temperatures for the entire Eastern United States in its six-to-10-day and one-month outlooks, Rackley said.