The steady rain that’s been making for a dreary start to the New Year in the Pittsburgh region is expected to switch over to light snow showers as temperatures plummet in time for Sunday’s Steelers-Dolphins game.
“Perfect for a Miami visit, high in the low-20s,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Lee Hendricks.
For today, the Weather Service forecasts widespread rain “with a good soaking” throughout the day and into this evening with mild temperatures teetering around 50 degrees. The low will be in the mid-30s.
Then the temps take a dive as a cold front pulls in tonight. Temperatures will fall throughout Wednesday and by late afternoon, the high will only reach the upper 20s, Mr. Hendricks said.
“Overnight Wednesday will drop to 16 degrees,” Mr. Hendricks said, “with snow showers on Thursday that’ll be a dusting or so.” Thursday’s high will hover in the low-20s and then dip to 15 wintry degrees by nightfall.
And those wintry temps will stick around through at least Sunday afternoon, when Steelers fans head to Heinz Field to watch their team face off against the Miami Dolphins in their AFC wild-card playoff game. Kickoff is 1 p.m.
The light wind forecast for game day will make the 20-degree weather harder to bear, however.
“When it’s that cold, even the slightest breeze with make it feel like 8 or 10 degrees,” said Tom Kines, a meteorologist with AccuWeather in State College, Centre County. “But we should be used to it by then.”
“We won’t see anything even close to a warming trend until Monday,” noted Mr. Hendricks.
Marianne Mizera: mmizera@post-gazette.com or @PGmariann.
First Published: January 3, 2017, 4:38 p.m.
Updated: January 3, 2017, 4:40 p.m.