Fall weather predictably unpredictable for local Halloween parades
“It’s fall.”
That’s a loaded observation from National Weather Service Pittsburgh meteorologist Pat Harold, who notes that autumn means highly variable weather for the region.
This season is no different, so Fayette County and Mon Valley communities planning Halloween parades are contending with anticipated temperatures in the 40s and 50s and drizzly mid-week weather patterns just days after highs peaked in the mid-70s last weekend.
“I dive pretty deep,” Muriel J. Nuttall, executive director of the Fayette Chamber of Commerce, said of looking at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) hourly precipitation forecasts when planning Chamber-organized parades such as Wednesday’s Halloween parade in Uniontown.
Thursday and Friday should be dry, Harold said, with showers possible before Thursday and this weekend expected to bring overnight temperatures dipping into the 30s. Halloween night on Tuesday will also be dry and cold, Harold said.
“Pennsylvania weather always is a little crazy,” Nuttall said.
Nuttall said Monday that there was a 31 percent chance of rain predicted by the NOAA for the hours of the Uniontown parade: 6:00 to approximately 7:30 p.m. Wednesday with lineup at 5 p.m.
“But the total precipitation forecast is 0.16 inches,” Nuttall said. “The parade is a go.”
The Uniontown parade, which annually features participants throughout Fayette County, was canceled in 2015 with no rescheduling set up for inclement weather, and Nuttall recalled that the area was expected to get hit with remnants of a hurricane during the parade that year. But this year, the Uniontown parade had a rain date set for Thursday — one that Nuttall said the Chamber was very unlikely to turn to.
North Belle Vernon’s Halloween parade, slated for Saturday at 1 p.m., has no rain date, borough Secretary Lisa Pollock said.
“It doesn’t matter what the weather is,” Pollock said.
“Weather’s kind of immaterial,” Wharton Township Supervisor Jim Means agreed. Wharton Township’s Halloween parade, slated for Saturday at 6 p.m., also has no rain date.
Local parade organizers just hope the weather, even if a little cooler than normal in certain stretches, is a little more treat than trick this Halloween.
“You can’t predict the weather,” Pollock said.