If you think Johnstown has more than its fair share of blah weather days, you’re right.
And if you think Johnstown seems to revel in this, right again.
I call these area precipitation worshipers the We Need Rain People. Let the sun shine for consecutive days and these people pop up saying stuff like “Things are getting awful dry!”
Amateurs mouth this sentiment on social media and in general conversation. Even the weather professionals tend to spout as much on broadcasts and web sites.
You’d think a town that has suffered through three major floods would not be so welcoming when it comes to clouds and rain.
A typical period of rain and overcast conditions that ranged for almost a week ended midway through Friday. Today, Saturday, was glorious, with abundant sunshine.
For those of us who have hobby cars we only take out in good weather, this means trying to cram a week’s worth of experience with the car(s) into a day and a half.
Responsible types – and I lump myself into that category – also need to use the rare nice days to accomplish other things, too, like mowing the grass. And so it was that yours truly, less than a month removed from a heart procedure and a couple of weeks past a knee mishap, found himself fitting grass mowing sessions between car joy rides.
The Mustang convertible got 30 miles or so of exercise yesterday afternoon and evening. I figured the grass still was too wet to mow well. At least that excuse sounded good.
But today, the late mother’s grass was mowed (it’s a long story) and then it was on to mow the son’s grass. I will get to my lawn Sunday – weather permitting and rain is forecast for the afternoon.
After doing my mowing chores today, and running to Burger King for myself and the wife who was cleaning out my late mother’s house (also a long story), it was time to ride the other Mustang, this a hardtop GT.
Just Friday afternoon, when the sun had reappeared after a long absence, I was telling a neighbor that I recall once reading how Johnstown rivals rain capital Seattle for rainy and overcast days. She was incredulous.
So, after putting the orange Mustang into its rented garage stall this evening, I took to the internet for some quick weather research.
What I found, in a posting from 2020 on the WTAJ-TV web site, is that Western Pennsylvania in general rivals Seattle, which has on average 156 overcast days a year. DuBois is ahead of that with an average of 162 overcast days each year and so is Pittsburgh, with 158. We in the Johnstown area trail Seattle by a tad, with 147 overcast days and Altoona is close by, with 143.
Any way you slice it, that’s more than our share of rain and overcast skies.
But this can be a good thing because it makes us appreciate those nice days, or stretches of same. It’s a reverse example of water tasting better in a desert.
Good weather quickly can be taken for granted. I recall one stretch of covering Pirates spring training in Florida when weather was beautiful for 10 consecutive days. It was boring in a way, and I found myself wishing for rain.
You can take the Johnstowner out of Johnstown, but . . .
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