Looks like a drought near Herrs Island Pittsburgh, 3 August 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)

4 August 2025

Where I live in the City of Pittsburgh it looks like we’re in a drought. The ground is dry and plants are wilting as seen at this photo near Herrs Island yesterday.

Are we in a drought?

The U.S. Drought Monitor map indicates that the Eastern U.S. is just fine.

Map from U.S. Drought Monitor at UNL

Pittsburgh’s year-to-date weather graph shows just a slight dropoff in expected rainfall at the end of July. Otherwise we’re fine.

Pittsburgh Local Climate graph, 2025 YTD from PBZ National Weather Service

For comparison, click here to see Morgantown’s temperature and rainfall graph YTD 2025. They have had lots of rain.

Pittsburgh day-to-day rainfall in July tells an interesting story. It barely rained before I went to Finland on 13 July and has barely rained since I returned. But I missed more than an inch of rain in Moon Twp on 16 July. Did it rain here in the City on that day?

Pittsburgh July rainfall graph from PBZ National Weather Service

I ask this question because lately, when the National Weather Service predicts rain for Pittsburgh, it rains everywhere else in the region but the clouds part — north and south — before they reach the City.

You can see this happening on 31 July 2025 in these historical radar screenshots from weather.us. I remember this quite vividly because I canceled plans to attend an outing in Butler County as there was supposed to be heavy rain. Hah!

Historical radar screenshots from weather.us
Click here to see historical radar images at weather.us including other dates and places.

It seems I’m living in a localized drought. Is this happening to you, too?