From tornadoes to temperature swings, here's why spring 2025 was so turbulent
June 1 marks the beginning of a new season of weather record keeping, so that means it's time to take a look back at the previous season for Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania.
Overall, the best way to describe spring this year would be turbulent. There were large swings in temperatures, which is expected, and bouts of severe weather.
Spring 2025 wasn't as warm as last year
March was well above normal by 7.7 degrees and the 12th warmest on record. April was 3 degrees above normal and May averaged out close to normal for the mean temperature. May was on track to be above average, but a stretch of unseasonably cool conditions in the last 10 to 12 days pulled the average temperature closer to average.
We have been so used to long stretches of well-above-normal temperatures for so long that when "normal" temperatures do occur, they seem abnormal. Spring 2024 was the warmest ever recorded, while spring 2025 ended as the eighth warmest on record.
(Photo: KDKA Weather Center)
Severe weather hit hard
This spring was considerably drier than last spring, which was the second wettest ever recorded with 16.79 inches of precipitation. April and May averaged out near to slightly above average for precipitation, but March was actually drier than normal. May ended cloudier than normal, with only two days of mostly clear skies when we typically average around five.
Another large weather impact and factor for this spring was the active and early start to our severe weather season. On March 16, the first event of the season occurred as a line of severe storms rolled through western Pennsylvania and produced five weak tornadoes in Westmoreland, Indiana and Fayette counties.
(Photo: KDKA Weather Center)
In addition to the tornadoes, there were also swaths of wind damage. Late April featured a powerful complex of storms that almost verified as a derecho, except the swath of 75 mph wind gusts was not long enough. Despite that, three people died, hundreds of thousands were without power in the Pittsburgh metro and western Pennsylvania and numerous trees were down, along with minor structural damage.
(Photo: KDKA Weather Center)
So far for the year, the National Weather Service Pittsburgh county warning area is up to 10 tornadoes. While we typically average around six per year, this number is likely to increase if trends continue.
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