The changing of the seasons
In the mountains, the leaves are down as Mother Nature took her show on the road, pausing in a few of the more urban areas in the lower elevations to show off a bit of color. But overall, another disappointing show this season as the wet summer and fall continued the growing season and this caused a lot of leaves to fall off early or turn brown from the excessive moisture and the cold snap last week. There were a few pops of color in these urban areas, and I even saw a few brilliant red maples when I was in Pittsburgh this past week.
The real joy of the fall season for me was seeing a bald eagle last Sunday perched on a tree branch on the bike trail between Ohiopyle and Confluence at mile post 66. As I watched, he took off and sailed up the river canyon, scouting for his next meal. Sightings have increased over the years; however, it鈥檚 been a few years since I was treated to the pleasure of seeing this majestic bird along the bike trail.
We did have a few warm days, but November has started off on the damp side with 1.33 inches of rain in the first week. The few warm days were isolated and not considered truly Indian summer type weather with its usual mild, hazy, dry, days. It may be awhile before we experience those mellow days as a surge of cold arctic air out of Central Canada looks like it will visit us next week and stay around for a week or two. Temperatures in Fairbanks, Alaska, plunged below zero several days this past week and while we are not expecting it to be that cold, we will have a rather dramatic cool down as the cold air is on the move and headed our way.
Normal temperatures for our area for the week of Nov. 9 through the Nov. 16 average 55 degrees for the high and 34 for the morning low. We are forecasting temperatures to be in the 40s and some 30s for the highs and 20s for a number of the morning lows over the next two weeks.
In the mountains, temperatures will be about five degrees colder with mostly 30s for highs and lows in the low and mid twenties. Past records for the Uniontown area this week are a high of 79 degrees on Nov. 12, 1949, and a low of 8 degrees on Nov. 16, 1933. The area may also see our first snow showers as the air will be cold enough to support snow. The cold period looks like it will hold on until about Nov. 20, and then, hopefully, we could experience a bit of Indian summer weather.
If we do get a few nice days later this month, don鈥檛 forget to check those tires and car batteries since the colder weather and snow require our equipment to be in good order when winter arrives.