Heat and dry weather were likely factors in how well the Allegheny County pools did this past summer, with North Park alone seeing a big uptick in swimmers compared to last year.
The 2024 swimming season welcomed 195,269 patrons across the county’s four pools: Boyce, North Park, Settlers Cabin and South Park.
There were 66,954 patrons at the pool at North Park, an increase of 25,000 from last year, said Abigail Gardner, director of communications for Allegheny County. And there was an increase of more than 40,000 for all pools combined.
“That is a significant increase over last year across all pools and, specifically, North Park,” she said.
Settlers Cabin Wave Pool also had similar high attendance this summer.
Pools opened in June and closed Labor Day weekend. South Park was closed until July 4 due to a new liner being installed.
South Park’s shorter swimming season accounted for the lower attendance count of 25,969, Gardner said.
The high attendance could be attributed to multiple factors, such as hot, sunny weather and not a lot of rainy weekends, according to Gardner.
“But the opening of the new baby pool in North Park also was a big draw,” she said.
Mother Nature helped the cause.
“Overall, the summer would be considered hot and mostly dry. Only one month had above-normal rainfall. and that was August,” said Rich Redmond, lead forecaster at the National Weather Service Pittsburgh office.
June, July and August all had above-normal temperatures, with June and July also having below-normal rainfall.
The average temperature for the entire summer was 74.4 degrees, which was 3.3 degrees above normal and the eighth warmest summer on record. Temperature records go back to 1875 for Pittsburgh, Redmond said.
For June, the average temperature was 72.8 degrees, 3.4 degrees above normal, and 2.5 inches of rain was recorded at Pittsburgh International Airport, 1.62 inches below normal. June had five days where the temperature hit 90 degrees or more.
The average temperature for July was 76.5 degrees, which was 3.3 degrees above normal. There was 3.17 inches of rain recorded at the airport, 1.09 inches below normal.
July had 11 days where the temperature hit 90 degrees or better.
The average temperature for August was 73.8 degrees, which was 2 degrees above normal, and more than 5 inches of rain was recorded at the airport, 1.60 inches above normal.
August had eight days when the temperature hit 90 degrees or more.
Pittsburgh is a cloudy city, with June boasting only two clear days, July seven clear days and August with four clear days. The rest were partly or just cloudy days.
The rainfall total for summer was 10.79 inches, .38 inches below normal. Rainfall records for Pittsburgh go back to 1871, according to Redmond.
“This would have been a great summer for pool usage,” he said. “It was hot. It was drier than normal, and we had lots of sun, along with many humid days. Pool levels likely suffered a bit from the drier than normal conditions. I know mine did. But the times that we did have rain, helped to raise the levels back up.”
The pools’ combined gate revenue was a little more than $1 million, not including concessions sales and other revenue generated at the pools, Gardner said.
However, the cost of the pool is significantly more than what the county makes back.
“But they are a vital community asset, as our all of our parks assets, and we do not expect them to be a money maker for the county,” she said.
For more on Pittsburgh summer weather, visit www.weather.gov/pbz/. Learn more about Allegheny County parks at www.alleghenycounty.us.
Natalie Beneviat is a Trib Total Media contributing writer.