It was the least windy September on record in Pittsburgh
Western Pennsylvania's weather has been very inactive over the last few months, which has led to the rapid expansion of drought across our region.
Another metric we can look at just to see how inactive and stagnant our weather pattern has been and continues to be is the lack of wind in our area.
During September, the average wind speed at Pittsburgh International Airport was 3.9 mph. The long-term average is around 7 mph, but recent trends in this data show a progressive decreasing trend in monthly wind speeds since the mid-1990s.
Pittsburgh wasn't the only spot with the least amount of wind on record in September. Franklin in Venango County had an average September wind speed of 4.1 mph. Erie's average monthly wind speed for September was the lowest on record at 6.4mph. Harrisburg and Columbus, Ohio, had the second-lowest amount of wind on record for September, with an average speed of 4.1 and 4.5 mph, respectively.
While summer into the first part of fall is not a windy time for our part of the world, there should be more wind than what has occurred over recent weeks.
The driving force behind this lack of wind has been a persistent, expansive and unusually strong high pressure centered across eastern to central Canada. High pressures usually comprise an air mass with similar characteristics. Wind is the result of air moving from high to low pressure. We've had little in the way of a pressure gradient with so much high pressure in our area and a lack of low pressure.