A changing of the seasons
Jack Hughes
Pictured is a patch of black-eyed Susans.
A late summer snowfall blanketed the mountains of Montana and Wyoming with several inches of snow this past week. While it did create a few problems for visitors to Yellowstone, Glacier and the Tetons, the snow helped to dampen the smoke from recent forest fires.
The cooler air associated with the snow is moving eastward and should help with the recent heatwave in the East; however, as usually occurs just after the children head back to school, the weather will warm up again this coming week.
What a beautiful time of the year across Southwestern Pennsylvania. Our meadows and roadsides are ablaze with the colors from the late summer wildflowers: yellow sneezeweed, black-eyed Susan蘑菇视频 and goldenrod seem to dominate; however, plenty of white Queen Ann蘑菇视频 lace, purple ironweed and the tall lavender Joe Pye weed add splashes of color to the landscape.
In the woods and along the Greater Allegheny Passage bike trail, you can already see a few leaves fluttering to the ground, and here and there a bit of red and yellow is beginning to show on a few of the maples. The sounds of the crickets can also be heard, along with a few cicadas that are getting ready to make a big appearance in the spring of 2019.
In the evening, the fireflies have turned out their lights and the katydids grow louder and start singing earlier each night. I love sitting out on these late summer evenings and listening to the symphony of sounds. This will continue until the cooler temperatures in late September bring an end to this nightly chorus.
Speaking of cooler weather, it is interesting to note that the average daytime temperature on September 1 is 82 degrees; however, by the end of the month it is only 71.
By October蘑菇视频 end the daily high is down to 62 degrees, and on November 30, it is just 43 degrees. We will lose almost 40 degrees in the next 90 days.
Nights also cool off rapidly from 58 degrees on September 1 to 29 by the end of November. Remember these are just averages and on any given day the temperature can vary widely from the average.
September has been as warm as 99 degrees and as cool as 29. October records are 95 and 16 and November has seen temperatures as warm as 85 and a cold morning of -1 degree below zero. These averages and records are for the lower elevations. Mountain temperatures average about five degrees cooler.
I like to follow the meteorological calendar of September, October and November being our fall months. These three months are generally our drier months of the year. Rainfall averages are 3.18 inches for September, 2.86 inches for October and 3.07 inches for November.
Many of our fall days are sunny and pleasant with cool mornings and pleasant afternoons.
Rainfall averages are influenced by occasional rains from a hurricane or tropical storms that get close enough to drop heavy rain in our region.
Snowfall does occur each fall, but usually holds off until early November and any snow that falls is usually gone in a day or so.
The average date of the first killing frost is October 20. The earliest date was Sept. 17, 1959, and the latest date occurred on Nov. 11, 1994. Enjoy the coming sunny, pleasant days.