Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Rain, sheep, tornadoes,hail, flooding

have all been seen in the Pittsburgh viewing area today. The best part of our day
was talking with Amy and these lambs, even though it was raining. (Click to embiggen!)

Since 4 PM there has been torrential rainfall and radar rotation and Doppler indicated tornadoes in eastern Ohio, West Virginia and southwestern PA. There is flooding almost everywhere. Flooding continues and deepens as the Monongahela River flows north from Morgantown, WV area to join the Allegheny River at the Point in Pittsburgh, forming the Ohio. Pittsburgh is a mess; for example, there were some people who were rescued off the tops of their cars. There has been constant local weather TV broadcasting tonight. Right here we have been having rain and some lightning, though our lightning has not been anything like the storm that had over 1500 (yes, fifteen hundred) lightning strikes in Ohio and West Virginia in a five minute time span. That storm and the one following it have tornadic rotation. Other storm cells tonight have also had tornadic rotation. Usually this area gets only 4 or 5 tornado warnings a year and there have been 3 tonight. The Oakland section of Pittsburgh, which includes the University of Pittsburgh, is flooding and seldom has problems. The back parking lot at Monroeville Mall is impassable, totally flooded. There are landslides. Basements flooded. Sewage issues. Residual damage tomorrow will be dramatic. We have been under up to 5 weather warnings simultaneously this evening. It is 10:30 PM as I write this; this kind of training and redevelopment, suspected to continue through the night, seldom occur in this area.

4 comments:

Sorka said...

Wow you are making me feel a bit 'homesick' talking about all the familiar places aroud Pittsburgh!
Are all the parking lots down by the river flooded too or have they figured out how to fix that?

Nancy said...

The Mon Wharf still floods. 'The Bathtub' flooded before 6 last night. Edgewood and Swissvale exits off the Parkway flooded. Carnegie Mellon had flooded buildings. Oakland and Squirrel Hill had over 4 inches rain yesterday. Old record was 1.07" for the date.

yarn elf said...

Glad you and DH are safe. Mother Nature seems to be upset. Weather has not been normal anywhere for awhile. Longer and more snow in the winter or spring seem late.

Linda said...

Glad you're OK - don't we just looove those "active" weather days?