Today
Has it rained enough in Pittsburgh?
The last rain heavy enough to soak in fell over a week ago. What has fallen since wet the leaves and no more.
Pittsburgh has had 31mm of rain in the last 30 days. A normal October here brings 95.1mm — and the driest October in the last 30 years still managed 34.5mm. This is drier than anything on that record.
Rain reaching the roots · 14 days
17 OctToday
Thirty years
Rain in Pittsburgh through a normal year
Across a normal year Pittsburgh gets about 1237.4mm of rain, most of it in June (133.2mm) and least in November (82.9mm).
A normal October in Pittsburgh has rain on 13 days. Only 9 of them bring enough to reach a root.
That makes Pittsburgh one of the wetter places this site covers in the United States in October — 10th of 30, against Seattle at the wet end (131.5mm) and Las Vegas at the dry end (8.4mm).
JFMAMJunJASONovD
Average rainfall by month, 1995–2024
What it means
What that means for what you grow
- Pots and hanging basketsWorst hit, and first to suffer. Very little soil, fully exposed, and nothing to fall back on — in this weather they can empty in a day.
- Salad and leafy vegShallow-rooted and quick to bolt once they run dry. First priority of anything in the ground.
- Beds and bordersA long soak that reaches the roots is worth more than a daily sprinkle, which only wets the surface and is gone by lunchtime.
- Established shrubs and treesFine as they are. They draw from far deeper than a dry spell reaches.