Pittsburgh Weather: While Still Early, Models Showing Big Snow Event For Pittsburgh This Weekend
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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – As the weekend inches closer, models are starting to show what could be a big snow event for the Pittsburgh area on Saturday night into Sunday.
What is known so far, is that someone will be getting a lot of snow this weekend, and more than a foot of snow can't be ruled out.
The first system came and went after causing some slick roads Wednesday morning. Still, some flurries will linger Wednesday night, but no widespread impacts are expected as it leaves.
System No. 2 arrives on Thursday afternoon. While the second system is not expected to bring big snow accumulations, it is expected to land during a Pittsburgh rush hour, so it will make an impact. It is expected to leave roughly an inch of snow in Pittsburgh with rain eventually mixing in Thursday night. This will transition back to light snow on Friday.
System No. 3 arrives this weekend. This one will feature some heavy areas of snow, some areas with rain and some areas with a wintry mix. It is arriving Saturday afternoon, but there is not a clear track yet, so it is too soon to say where the impacts will be felt.
If the latest models are to be believed, you can't cancel out over a foot of snow falling in or just north of Pittsburgh over the weekend.
What we need to see now is consistency from the models before a more accurate forecast can be confirmed. The other thing we are watching for is model consistency or the same model over and over again showing nearly the same thing. We aren't there yet, as most data jumped southward overnight.
A swatch appears to be stretching along northern Allegheny County up through southern Butler County, which sees large totals of eight or more inches of snow.
Parts of southern Allegheny County and Washington County just north of I-70 could see a mixture of rain, snow and freezing rain that could cause some power outages. The track may change a little bit to the north or the south but at this point it really looks like data is locking on to this area.
This system has not fully formed yet and has not made its way through the Rocky Mountains, and as great as computer forecasting and data has become, it is not perfect.
Normal forecasts for snow are out within 48 hours of an event. Things may be a little different this time due to accumulating snow expected on Thursday night into Friday morning.
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