How Does Pittsburgh Weather Compare to Chicago’s?

Submitted by PatienceOk3159 t3_10p71jr in pittsburgh

South African who grew up partially in California. Been living in Chicago for 3 years or so. Weather is a bit of a drag but the totally flat landscape with decent parks and nature and views hours and hours and hours away is the bigger deal breaker.

I already asked about your pizza 😂 and it seemed good enough to do the trick

Generally speaking, it seems a fair bit warmer if not drastically (officially the average is 5 degrees I believe). It has about a month less sun sadly - but recreational opportunity seems vastly superior (avid hill runner)

Driving (I don’t own a car in Chicago just rent one from time to time) seems tricky based off the ice and hills I here. I imagine I Can find good walkable neighborhoods (I lived in Oakland CA without a car and didn’t find it a major trouble. Although I did go on some quite long walks to do many things. But it was mostly nice along the routes I made)

But I realize a car will basically be essential when it comes down to it -

Would you say it’s generally better than chicago on weather? Being the same isn’t a deal breaker but curious for a proper comparison.

0

Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

Tiny-Cheesecake t1_j6inod2 wrote

Take the train to the Indiana Dunes! They're almost like hills. And if you can borrow a car, drive out to the Midewin prairie preserve for a different kind of nature.

Anyway, Pittsburgh is not nearly as cold, but much grayer. Rains all the time and harder. No brilliant blue winter skies like you get in Chicago. It can be equally windy. There are not as many bus shelters, and definitely no heat lamps, so waiting for transit sucks more.

18

PatienceOk3159 OP t1_j6jtdoa wrote

Man that train comes twice a day. And if I’m going to rent a car I’d rather just leave Chicago. The parks sorta cool but pales compared to the Dunes in Michigan.

Prairie preserved huh that’s different? St Louis has some nice hills in the metro. But I’m a fan of urban hills.

I’ve considered Cinci as well but it just seems sleepier and less dense than Pittsburgh. And i feel I’d rather be around an eastern USA derived culture than lower Midwest.

I like Milwaukee’s parks decently and there’s some hills there. Not enough but a lot more.

Yeah I figure I’d get a car but avoid using it for a fair chunk of the year.

Shame about the skies although I’d imagine the views would mostly make up for it?

1

SteamDome t1_j6in5tj wrote

The weather is definitely better compared to Chicago. It’s doesn’t get nearly as cold and we generally do not get a lot of snow. It’s typically pretty grey during the fall and winter but the temps are tolerable.

Plenty of hills for you to run if that’s your thing. The individual neighborhoods are all pretty walkable it’s getting between them where it’s nice to have a car. You could just as well take and Uber or the bus though

5

James19991 t1_j6ixhwv wrote

At least according to the NWS averages, Chicago is noticeably colder in the winter, but annual snowfall between the two cities annually is actually slightly higher in Pittsburgh.

The averages also show that Pittsburgh is actually cooler than Chicago from June through October as well. I guess they're more prone to getting the heat and humidity from the Great Plains and Gulf of Mexico then we are at the foothills of the Appalachians.

5

CARLEtheCamry t1_j6l546z wrote

> but annual snowfall between the two cities annually is actually slightly higher in Pittsburgh.

Statistically, but I'm willing to bet that Chicago snow sticks around a lot longer too. Like snow on the ground all winter, vs 6" here and it rains 3 days later here.

Also the Great Lakes act as a heat ballast, causing warmer falls and early winter and cooler springs into the summer. I grew up in Erie so not Chicago, but I can say the change of seasons right on Lake Erie is a lot less tumultuous and once the winter coat is out, it's staying out.

4

James19991 t1_j6llixj wrote

Yeah though they might get a little less, they are definitely less prone to that 45 to 50 degree day in January than we are that can melt everything quite quickly.

2

sitadino t1_j6kdcjj wrote

Lived in both, chicagos weather is a million times worse. Yes Pittsburgh is gray, but gets nowhere near as cold as consistently or dramatically as chicago. (Pgh people think they know winter but they have little idea hehe). Public transit, as has been said, is variable depending on where you live in pgh but nowhere as reliable as the L. Car is whatever you prefer, I have lived years in pgh without a car working all over the city. Just try to picture most city’s public transit in the 90s, that’s Pittsburgh! You would enjoy the urban hills here, it’s quite a playground if you like them. Biking is fun too

5

sitadino t1_j6kdg12 wrote

Oh and meant to say, Pittsburgh is literally surrounded with beautiful hiking and mountains and fun. Nothing like driving out of Chicago to the shitty soybean fields

3

PatienceOk3159 OP t1_j6kse9k wrote

Love the brutality of your take on Chicago with the soy beans and weather.

I like Chicago, but it has numerous downsides like you mentioned. Also the 90s were cool.

5

jmppgh t1_j6ld254 wrote

Pittsburgh has 4 equal seasons, including beautiful Spring and Fall days. Chicago has 2 seasons: Winter and Summer.

3

SHC715 t1_j6nr8z1 wrote

Nice I love fall and I love proper Spring - Chicago has like two or so weeks of each - and a chaos vortex of a Spring.

​

BIG PLUS

1

Wide-Concert-7820 t1_j6j82fa wrote

Having lived in both....Chicago is flat and windy but has considerably more sun hours...no surprise. Chicago gets most of the "named" winter storms that travel across the plains.

Pittsburgh is grey with lots of precip, and did I mention it is grey? It also gets lake effect snows, which account for its higher precip amounts.

The key difference i saw was the topography. Hills offer a lee side that flat lands do not. Welcome to Pittsburgh. We sincerely hope you love it here. Just dont tell anyone, we like how cheap it is.

2

uppermidd t1_j6jz4x5 wrote

It doesn't get as intensely cold in Pittsburgh at the height of winter as it does in Chicago. Otherwise not a huge difference. While Chicago's skyline is hard to top, between Pittsburgh's still-decent skyline, the hills and the bridges, it is more interesting visually IMO. And as a runner, there's so much more to explore, both on the streets and in city parks.

2

PatienceOk3159 OP t1_j6k9jf3 wrote

That’s a pretty good selling point right there. And it is a very solid skyline. Punches well above its weight.

How’s the economy? I was laid off in December. Took a month off and then found two jobs within a couple weeks.

Nothing fancy. Just food service manager type jobs but fine for the reasonable CoL for Chicago as far as small condos go (houses in good urban neighborhoods and having kids That’s another affordability story for Chi though)

I lived in Sacramento for a bit as a university student and finding ANY job was a nightmare for me, to be fair I didn’t really hit it off with any of the interviewers there - not sure if I was worse at interviews then or if there was a regional bias or something else.

Point being is even very basic jobs were hard to get.

2

uppermidd t1_j6kilrg wrote

Can't speak to the current economy there, but I think the trend of the past 15 years there has been pretty steady. Not the type of boom you have in a lot of Sun Belt places, but much more stable and vibrant than some struggling Rust Belt cities.

1

[deleted] t1_j6inwup wrote

Chicago weather is worse however the 800 gun murders in Chicago makes Pittsburgh seem warm and fuzzy. 🧸

−16

TheAbyssAlsoGazes t1_j6iqfq0 wrote

Chicago has roughly 10x the population of Pittsburgh though. If you look at homicide rates per capita, Pittsburgh sadly isn't that much better.

7

[deleted] t1_j6irmji wrote

No, Pittsburgh, if you incorporated the area surrounding is much less than killings shootings of Chicago. Chicago took over all the neighborhoods back in the Capones days to control the city. Pittsburgh saw the problem and kept many area neighborhoods a seprate municipality ,fire,schools, maintenance etc. more jobs more control and MORE Safety. This is why some neighborhoods in Atlanta are trying to become there own city because majority of crime is in just a few sections. Facts stink

−7

TheAbyssAlsoGazes t1_j6isy7o wrote

Fact- the area surrounding Pittsburgh is not Pittsburgh

8

Wide-Concert-7820 t1_j6j78hw wrote

I disagree. When considering Pittsburgh, or Boston for that matter, the metro area is considered due to a 7:1 ratio with their small land areas. We have 3 pro teams....do you think they consider 300k in the city or the 2.4 metro when considering what is or isnt Pittsburgh?

4

SHC715 t1_j6nrov6 wrote

It seems from what I've heard that both Pittsburgh and Boston have some very urban inner ring suburbs. This isn't true for a lot of cities.

Even for Chicago, I'd say only Berwyn, Cicero, Evanston, and maybe Blue Island are really urban in the inner ring. Suppose there's a lot of really sketchy burbs in the inner ring that might qualify as well.

2

Wide-Concert-7820 t1_j6nwbev wrote

They developed quite differently. Boston, of course, was right on the shore and developed at a time that the distancea were significantly magnified as the horse was the only means of transportation. Common roads like Mass ave were continued outwards and places like Arlington sprung up. This lent itself to mass transit easily when technolgy caught up.

Greater Pittsburgh developed as mill towns. When Carnegie needed another mill, he looked for the next flat area near the rivers, took a steam ship to the European country struggling the most, and brought 5k or so people over. Built the mill, connected to the railroad, and built a town for them usually in their native language with English subtitles on signs. There was no interest in being connected to anything other than the mill, river, and railroad. They are suburbs now. They were fully independent towns (albeit company towns) then.

Not sure what this has to do with weather. But it does explain the ratio of suburbs to city.

2

TheAbyssAlsoGazes t1_j6jwaqq wrote

>due to a 7:1 ratio with their small land areas

What do you mean? A ratio of what to what?

1

[deleted] t1_j6jrvt4 wrote

Wow good answer and not some woke shitesz

0

[deleted] t1_j6j5eji wrote

Guy said he was from South Africa and he gets the benefit of the doubt Pittsburgh sucks ?

0

PatienceOk3159 OP t1_j6k8pcx wrote

OP here and I’m not really sure what you’re trying to say ….

It seems some neighborhoods in different metros want to be independent municipalities so they can control their crime and public services more?

1

[deleted] t1_j6it74q wrote

Exactly that’s why you can say Pittsburgh is dangerous when most of the murders happened just a few streets away.

−5

[deleted] t1_j6iqk2e wrote

Why the down votes ? This is a positive for Pittsburgh ?

−5