April snow showers could hit Western Pa. this week

Say it ain’t snow.

The National Weather Service is calling for possible snow showers on Wednesday, with some accumulation possible.

“We’re going to have a cold front sweep through the area on Tuesday night into Wednesday,” said Chris Leonardi, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Moon. “We’re expecting rain on the front end and then it’s going to change over to snow or at least mix with snow Wednesday morning.”

Snow shovels can most likely stay in the garage. Leonardi said he’s not looking for much in the way of accumulation.

“The reason for that is temperatures are going to remain relatively warm, at least for most of the precipitation time. We will have some snow but as late in the season as it is, the ground is relatively warm, so that’s going to prevent a lot of the accumulation,” Leonardi said.

The real cold air, he said, will come Wednesday night as temperatures fall to the low 30s and maybe upper 20s.

“Right now, in our forecast, we have maybe a tenth or two-tenths of an inch of snow accumulating for Allegheny County.”

Snow is no stranger to Pittsburgh in April or even May for that matter, although it’s fairly unusual to see accumulating snow at this time of year, according to Leonardi.

“The average latest day for measurable snowfall is April 7,” he said.

But there are exceptions. In 2018, nearly an inch of snow accumulated on April 19. The latest recorded snow accumulation in Pittsburgh was on May 9, 1966, when the area saw 3.1 inches of snow.

Temperatures should climb back into the 60s by the weekend.