Weather in Pittsburgh in July

Shoulder season. July sits in between. You will get good days and you will lose some. You should expect rain on 15 days of the month, which is more days wet than dry.

July ranks 7 of 12 in Pittsburgh: past the worst of the year but short of September, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 15 days, 3 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Pack for 29.9 °C days and 17.7 °C nights; the spread matters more here than any single number.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: 15 days top 30 °C — hot spells arrive, but they break. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest July day reached 38.4 °C and the coldest night fell to 8.7 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 35 mm — roughly 38% of the month's rain in one day.

July is statistically steady but not small: the year-to-year variation is modest in relative terms, yet the wettest July on record still delivered 145 mm against 36 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 91 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind is light at 0.6 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity is unremarkable at 72%.

How July sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 26.7 °C in June, 29.9 here, 30 in August. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much.

Daylight in July

July is at or near the longest days of Pittsburgh's year: 14.8 hours of daylight, losing 0.6 hours across the month. Evenings are the real gain — dinner outdoors still happens in full light.

An inland climate

With no coast nearby, the year swings a fair way — 36.1 °C between the warmest afternoons and the coldest nights, wider than any coastal city at this latitude would manage.

How busy it gets

Busy. Popular without being frantic; book the things you care about, improvise the rest.

Crowd levels are estimated from climate desirability and school-holiday calendars, not from visitor numbers.

July in Pittsburgh versus nearby

If Pittsburgh is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Cleveland is a better bet in July — 4 °C cooler, 1 day more rain. Columbus is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day less rain.

So: July is a compromise. September is 22 points better and is what Pittsburgh is actually like at its best — worth moving the trip for if that is possible, and worth adjusting expectations for if it is not.

Every month in Pittsburgh

See all twelve months in Pittsburgh, or where else to go in July.