PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Saturday morning begins with slightly cooler and drier air moving into Western Pennsylvania following the passage of a cold front moving through the area this morning. 

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That dry air will prevail for much of this weekend leading to mild days and cool nights. Highs will reach the upper 70s to near 80 with lows in the mid-50s to near 60 degrees. A few lake-effect showers may occur on Sunday afternoon over our northern counties, mainly north of I-80. 

Most of next week will be dry outside of a passing weak weather system Monday night into Tuesday which will result in increasing clouds along with a few scattered showers. 

The best chance of rain will be farther south into southwest Pennsylvania, northern West Virginia, and northwest Maryland. We will have to watch for potential periods of wildfire smoke from Canada and the Pacific Northwest that could move into our area depending on the direction of the wind flow in the middle to upper atmosphere. 

The dry stretch may end toward the end of next week with a slow-moving system approaching from the west bringing increased opportunities for showers and thunderstorms by late next Friday into the following Saturday.

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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A 30-inch water main busted on the Fort Duquesne Bridge in Pittsburgh, sending water shooting to the ground on Thursday night.

The Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority is responsible for that line across the bridge. It learned about the leak in the overnight hours. Its crews shut off the water to the 30-inch line and drained the pipe on Friday morning.

“When we see breaks on a pipe like that, we often see quite a bit of water,” PWSA spokesperson Mora McLaughlin said.

PennDOT said 371 bridges in the Pittsburgh area carry utilities. That’s roughly 20% of the bridges in the region. With our numerous rivers and valleys, bridges serve as a way to connect people and their utilities.

“Pittsburgh is a city with a lot of bridges, and those are interconnection points between pieces of land around the city. So yes, utilities like water main pipes do run under bridges sometimes,” McLaughlin said.

The PWSA said the last time it saw a pipe leak on a bridge was earlier this month with a 16-inch line on the Bloomfield Bridge. Crews inspect exposed infrastructure like this when they are in the vicinity and report any issues. 

Even with the amount of water that gushed out of the pipe on the Fort Duquesne Bridge, no customers lost service.

Crews were out accessing the damage and doing cleanup on Friday afternoon. PennDOT said there was no damage to the bridge.

The PWSA didn’t have a timeline for repairs.