The National Weather Service on Tuesday issued two seemingly contradictory warnings for Western Pennsylvania when meteorologists cautioned about near-drought conditions in the region, then followed up with an advisory for severe evening thunderstorms.

But today should be nice.

The hazardous weather outlook was issued for the region -- as well as for eastern Ohio, northern West Virginia and western Maryland -- because the past two months have seen higher-than-usual temperatures and low rainfall, drying things out and making conditions ripe for brush fires.

Even with the near-record snowfall the region experienced this last winter, precipitation for the year is at 25.13 inches, less than the normal average of 27.3 inches.

Those numbers are fairly close, but the data also shows that the widest gap between what we usually get and what we got occurred in August, when rainfall was less than half of the 3.38 inches the region averages.

"It was just a hot summer, with some abnormally dry conditions from Pittsburgh extending south, but it's not officially a drought," said Heather Buchman, a meteorologist with AccuWeather.com in State College.

"Right now, we have a cold front approaching from the west and there's some gusty winds ahead of that, up to 20, 25 miles an hour. And then there's this pretty dry air mass. The combination of high winds and the low humidity creates a danger for wildfires. But it's going to be short-lived."

Ms. Buchman said the cold front, which brought along a line of thunderstorms east and north of Pittsburgh Tuesday night, would be followed by even drier air, but the winds should die down, diminishing the threat.

The National Weather Service advisory regarding the cloudbursts late Tuesday mentioned the chance of lightning, high winds and hail.

Heavy rain, accompanied by lightning, rolled into Pittsburgh around 9:30 Tuesday night, causing a 43-minute delay in the game between the Pirates and Atlanta Braves. Scattered power outages were reported throughout the region.

The storms were expected to be clear of the region by this morning, with skies mostly clear and temperatures ranging from the low 70s into the low 50s tonight.

Local authorities said they were mindful of the advisories but expressed little alarm. Ponds may be a little low and some grassy areas might be fading to brown a bit, but it's nothing we haven't seen before. And it gives homeowners and public works crews a break from mowing.

Ray Demichiei, deputy director for the city's emergency management, said his crews hadn't reported any problems and didn't anticipate any.

"Historically, we've not had many problems with brush fires," Mr. Demichiei said. "If we do have a brush fire, it's going to be a little worse than it might normally be. But, unlike some of our folks in the suburbs, we have better access to get to fires, so we can get there quicker and knock them down faster."

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reported that river levels in the region are being kept constant as crews open up flow from the 12 reservoirs that feed into the Pittsburgh area, three into the Monongahela Basin and nine into the Allegheny Basin.

Corps spokesman Jeff Hawk said the reservoirs are used to store water when the region is at risk of flooding in the late winter and early spring. Then, the water is used to provide flows for navigation and to offset pollution during the summer and fall.

"The reservoirs are lower, but that's an indication that the system is working," said Lewis Kwett, a hydraulic engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Pittsburgh.

"We're now down to the one-out-of-four, one-out-of-five years when it gets this low. That moves us into a drought watch, but that's an advisory condition. We're not in a drought, but it could happen."

Mr. Kwett said most lakes are a little lower, but still not to the point of concern, although the Youghiogheny Lake in Somerset and Fayette counties is particularly low, he said, and has gone to "drought watch mode."

The Yough Basin is one of the driest areas in the western part of the state, he said, a sharp contrast to the high amount of snow that area saw in February. And where did all that melted snow go?

"That's something we kind of puzzle about, too, sometimes," he said. "There's an amount that runs off when it melts, and the amount that evaporates or sinks into the ground. It's not really easy to say."

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