Pittsburgh Weather: Hazy start to Tuesday with isolated afternoon rain chance

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Have you noticed the haze around lately?

• Daily average High: 74 Low: 53
• Sunrise: 5:58 a.m. Sunset: 8:38 p.m.

Today: Pleasant with morning temps in the mid-50s and highs today near 80.

Any Alert Days Ahead?: Nope.

Aware: Powerful cold front rolls through on Wednesday. I now have a scattered rain chance. Rain chance will be around for Memorial Day weekend.

If you’ve been watching KDKA over the last two weeks, there is a solid chance you’ve heard us meteorologists on staff talking about the haze each day. 

While it’s been around through the days in varying degrees since at least May 9, there are days and times when it is barely visible. The best chance for noticing the haze has come near sunrise and sunset. It’s always like that, and the reason for that is that the angle through the haze increases as the sun angle decreases.  

Think about if you drop something in a pool. It’s far easier to spot it when it is directly below you than if it is just a couple of feet off to the side. Think of the item directly below you as the sun at noon. The haze, or water, doesn’t do a very good job of ‘hiding’ the sun at noon. But just like you all of a sudden notice the water and lose the item when you are off to the side, that’s the sun and haze at sunset and sunrise where the low sun angle makes the haze much more visible.

When it comes to today’s weather, there is a small chance of isolated rain this afternoon due to the heating of the sun.  If you see rain it won’t last long, but could be fairly heavy. Temperatures this morning are in the low 50s. Highs today should be near 80. I will call the skies, besides the haze, partly cloudy. 

There’s a better chance for rain on Wednesday as a cold front slides through. I have been keeping in a 30% chance for rain on Wednesday, even though model data had kept us dry up until late Monday. I am now bumping up our rain chance to be scattered (40%) on Wednesday afternoon. The chance for rain will be from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. as the cool front slides through.

Rain, when and if it gets to you, will last less than a half hour, with gusty winds sliding in behind the front.

Looking ahead, there’s going to be a lot of dry time this weekend, but there will be a chance for rain too. The rain chance will be scattered on Sunday and Monday and isolated on Saturday.

Highs over the holiday weekend will be in the mid-70s.

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