For First Time In Weather Records, Pittsburgh Has Two Back-To-Back Years Of 50" Rainfall

Last year was the third wettest year on record in Pittsburgh history. More than 52 inches of precipitation fell over Southwestern Pennsylvania. This was only the fourth time in recorded history, in well over 100 years, that Pittsburgh received that much rain and snow.

One of the other times was last year, which was the region’s wettest in modern history. That makes the last two years the first time in Pittsburgh history that more than 50 inches of precipitation fell in back-to-back years. Had Hurricane Ivan not hit Pittsburgh in 2004, which dropped almost 6 inches of rain in one day, 2019 would have been the second wettest year on record. It’s safe to say Pittsburgh is getting wetter and it is happening pretty rapidly.

A climate professor at Carnegie Mellon University says the diagnosis for all the wet weather is fairly obvious: climate change.

“It is generally true that for climate change ‘wetter places will get wetter, dryer places will get drier,’” wrote CMU professor Neil Donahue in an email to Pittsburgh City Paper. “This is pretty straightforward because when it is hotter there is more evaporation of water but to balance that there is also more precipitation. … So, much of the U.S. east of the Mississippi [River] will get wetter, much of the west will get drier.”

EDIT

https://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/pittsburgh-received-50-inches-of-precipitation-for-first-time-ever-in-consecutive-years/Content?oid=16483922