Remnants of Hurricane Barry to bring more rain to waterlogged Pittsburgh region

Remnants of Hurricane Barry are expected to bring more rain to Western Pennsylvania this week — possibly as soon as Tuesday — as the region is still drying out from last week’s heavy storms.

Barry strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane with winds of 75 mph by Saturday morning when it hit Louisiana and caused flooding and power outages.

Lee Hendricks, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Moon, said the Barry weather system was expected to merge with another system out of the Great Lakes.

Hendricks said it was difficult Monday to pinpoint the path the storm would take, but the region could see a half-inch of rain Tuesday and heavier rain Wednesday night into Thursday.

“Possibly as much as an inch and a half to 2 inches,” Hendricks said.

Since Jan. 1, the region has received 30.3 inches of rain — nearly 9 inches above normal, and up about an inch from the 29.35 inches of rain the region received by this time last year.

Hendricks said soil across Western Pennsylvania remains moist from last week’s heavy rains that caused widespread flooding on Thursday.

“The rain we had last week was, quite frankly, outrageous,” he said.

He said damage from the approaching storm wasn’t expected to be as bad.

“We will get some rises out of streams and creeks if we get 2 inches of rain over an 18-hour period or so,” he said.