The globe just had its hottest summer on record

[FakeNoose]

19. We had a hot and mostly dry summer in Pittsburgh

I can remember a hotter summer in 1988, when it was in the 90's for about 8 weeks straight with no rain. People actually died from the extended heatwave that year.

The thing about Pittsburgh and southwestern PA is that we don't often get sunny days here, even in the summer. The moist air coming up the Ohio River Valley meets up with the moist winds coming down from the Great Lakes, and the result is that we get a lot of cloudy days. It doesn't always mean rain, but we get a lot of that too.

This past summer the winds were different, and we didn't get so many cloudy days. We got a lot of sun and many days up in the 90s, with not so much rain. It's nice to see blue skies and sun, but not when your grass dies brown and your veggie garden won't grow.

I hope next year we get more balance between warm sunny days and occasional rain. The thing I like about living in Pittsburgh is that we don't often get big storms here, and the snow isn't too bad in winter. We're actually very fortunate compared to other areas of the country.