This past weekend was a weekend of fire, rain, and snow in the Alleghenies. I was walking on the James Mayer Trail in Johnstown when I saw a bunch of sparks and heard a tree fall. I got closer to see what happened. What I saw was in the video above.
I called 911 to report the fire. The fire department came and it was promptly put out. You can see its aftermath in the video I took the next day. It could have spread to the entire hillside if the response had been slower. Thankfully no one was hurt.
I submitted the video to WJAC TV. Surprisingly there was little mention of it on the 11 PM news. They might have had a skeleton crew on the weekend. The Tribune-Democrat did report on it in their Monday edition. There was another brush fire on Eisenhower Blvd at the same time.
WJAC did report on officials warning people not to burn things in their yard with the dry conditions. They also covered the Irish festival in Tyrone.
Rain
The next day there was little mention of the fires because the storms that ravaged the south moved our way. There were high winds, tornado warnings, severe thunderstorm warnings and downed power lines throughout the area. WJAC did interrupt their broadcasts Sunday afternoon to discuss these warnings. An assisted living facility in Nanty Glo had its roof blown off by the high winds.
Snow
The day after the rain storms, the temperature decreased to around freezing. Light snow fell on the ground but did not last. Today the temperature rebounded into the 60’s.
Why does all of this matter? The fire, rain and snow in the Alleghenies over the St. Patrick’s day holiday may not be remembered for very long. Does the local media have the ability to adequately cover a disparate cluster of weather events? Are they able to tie these events to greater forces like climate change?
Eighty nine years ago the St. Patrick’s day floods ravaged Johnstown, Pittsburgh and much of the Alleghenies. Deniers of climate change would say that nothing that dramatic happened this weekend. However the frequency of these events is expected to become more frequent as average global temperatures rise.