It’s freezing outside — snowy, slushy, and even a little icy — and it made us wonder: How often does the city deal with winter weather like this? And when has it been bad enough to break records or shut down the city?
Here are a few of Pittsburgh’s worst snowstorms and cold snaps, plus a look at how we started measuring inclement weather in the first place.
Pioneering Weather Research
Our city was at the forefront of what eventually became the National Weather Service.
In 1870, Congress ordered the first official meteorological observations, starting with military stations assigned to the U.S. Army Signal Office, or Signal Corps. Pittsburgh was part of this network. That November, a city worker recorded our first temperature reading by leaning out of a 5th Avenue window in Downtown.
Modern weather stations followed in the 1930s at our airports and elsewhere. Today, our main NWS station is in Coraopolis near Pittsburgh International Airport.
Pittsburgh’s Coldest, Snowiest Days
January is by far the coldest month in Pittsburgh, when the average high is 39°F and the average low is 23°F. (Scroll down for the coldest temperature ever recorded here!) It usually rains or snows (or both) at least 10 days throughout the month.
But there have been lots of heavy snowfalls and frigid cold spells all throughout the winter months ⬇️ Let us know if yinz remember these frosty events!
🌨️ ‘The Big Snow’
Right after Thanksgiving in 1950, Southwestern PA got more than 27 inches of snow. The “Great Appalachian Storm” was ranked a Category 5 storm by the NOAA in the Ohio Valley.
🥶 Coldest Winter Ever
As 1976 turned into ‘77, the average temp that season hovered just below 21°F. January was especially brutal, with an average of 11°F. We even had a colder-than-usual summer that year, with an average temp of just 67°F.
❄️ Blizzard of ‘93
The “Storm of the Century” dropped 23.6 inches of snow on March 13, 1993. That’s three inches per hour! Major highways shut down, flights were canceled or delayed, and in typical Pittsburgh fashion, the city still held its annual St. Patrick’s Day parade; 117 marching bands and groups braved the storm and swept through Downtown.
🧊 Longest Cold Snap
Pittsburgh’s coldest recorded temperature of -22°F happened January 19, 1994. The high that day only got up to -3°F. It was a part of a blistering stretch when then-Gov. Bob Casey declared a state of emergency and the rivers fully froze. Temperatures stayed below zero for 52 straight hours.
☃️ Snowmageddon
A snowstorm dropped 21.9 inches on a Friday in February 2010, and school was cancelled well into the next week. It also became a political boondoggle for then-Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, who’d traveled to Seven Springs to celebrate his 30th birthday and was not around to help the city in crisis.
🌬️Polar Vortex
In early January 2014, the city recorded temps as low as -9°F. Meteorologists told everyone to stay indoors to avoid near-instantaneous frostbite, so of course videos were all over social media of folks throwing pans of water in the air to watch them freeze. Then-newly elected Mayor Bill Peduto moved his inauguration indoors because of the cold.
