National Weather Service to lift Pittsburgh boating advisory this weekend
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Boating season might begin after all.
The Allegheny and Kiski rivers are expected to clear and settle down this weekend as the National Weather Service lifts a weeklong recreational boating advisory in Pittsburgh.
More than 3 inches of rain soaked the region within three days last week and the significant runoff from the storms sent a heavy, fast-moving flow of water on the Allegheny River into the Ohio River at Pittsburgh’s Point, according to Lee Hendricks, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Moon Township.
The conditions prompted the National Weather Service to issue a recreational boaters advisory on Saturday because of the high flow of water, fast currents and debris.
Also last weekend, the Allegheny River Development Corp., which pays the Army Corps of Engineers to open the four locks in the Armstrong County to recreational boaters, decided to keep the locks closed because of the high water.
The weather service lifted the recreational boaters advisory on the lower Allegheny on Thursday morning and planned lift it in the Pittsburgh pool of the Allegheny and Ohio rivers on Saturday morning.
The locks will be open to recreational boaters this weekend because of better water conditions and the Waves of Thunder motorcycle show in Kittanning running Friday through Sunday, according to Linda Hemmes, president of the Allegheny River Development Corp.
“Last weekend, we got off to what we hope is not the new normal,” Hemmes said. “Now the water is not ideal, but it is clearing.”
Actually, the Allegheny River wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been. The Army Corps of Engineers’ Conemaugh and Loyalhanna flood prevention dams and reservoirs near Saltsburg held back water from last week’s rain, according to Megan Gottlieb, civil engineer in water management in the Corps’ Pittsburgh office.
While the water was high in both reservoirs, it wasn’t record-breaking, and the Corps has been slowly releasing water since last week to draw down its excess water, Gottlieb said.
The excess water makes it way to the Kiski River and then to the Allegheny River in Gilpin on its way to Pittsburgh.
The Corps will continue to release water until later this week, she said.
“We time our releases and we try our best to accommodate downstream events like holidays and kayak sojourns,” Gottlieb said.
But the Corps has to balance that with preventing flooding in places such as Vandergrift.
“Conemaugh is a big player in preventing flooding all the way to Pittsburgh’s Point,” Gottlieb said.
The Corps said its dams and reservoirs in the Pittsburgh District prevented more than $1 billion in flood damage.