Forecast for Pirates' home opener calls for near-perfect weather

Opening day weather for the Pirates has largely been hit-and-miss over the last decade or so. More often than not, the high temperature hasn’t reached 60 degrees.

But Tuesday’s forecast calls for mostly sunny skies and temperatures near 70 for the game between the Pirates and the Chicago Cubs at PNC Park. The Pirates scheduled the first pitch at 4:12 p.m, to mirror the April 12 game date (and local area code).

“It looks like the game is being played at a perfect time – between a couple of storm systems with temperatures on the mild side of things,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Rich Redmond.

“There should be plenty of sunshine to start the game. As it gets toward the later part of the game, clouds will be thickening because it looks like more showers will be moving in,” he said. “But they won’t start until after the game is over.”

Redmond said it helps that the game is being played a little later in April.

In 2019, when the Pirates played their home opener against St. Louis on April 1, the high temperature was a brisk 42 degrees and most fans wore heavy coats for the entire game.

The only unusual thing about that day was the sunshine. For eight of the 10 Pirates home openers between 2009 and 2018, the skies were cloudy or overcast. And for the openers between 2016 and 2018, the high temperature did not go above 40 degrees.

Last year, however, when the home opener was played on April 8, the temperature reached 82 degrees, the warmest opener since 2015 when the temperature reached 76.

That’s excluding opening day 2020 when the temperature was 92 – but that game was played on July 27 after having been delayed by the pandemic.

“The weather can go either way in April, especially early in April where you could have a stretch of colder weather or you could have a stretch of warmer weather,” said Redmond.

He said that after tomorrow, the weather for the Pirates games coming up later in the week could be a little dicey.

“We are going to have some showers moving back through on Wednesday – nothing heavy – but it looks touch-and-go for the game (starting at 12:35 p.m.). And then it will be dry for Thursday’s (night) game vs. Washington but the temperatures will be about 10 degrees cooler.”

In other words, typical mid-April baseball weather.