A few showers tonight, much more rain later on

OAK HILL, WV (WOAY) – We’re tracking a few showers that are pushing into the state from Ohio during the evening. The showers are light and widely scattered, but we’ll see them come through the area by late tonight and early tomorrow morning.

The best rain chances will be in the northern areas, with lesser chances towards the Virginia line.

Any rainfall totals from these showers will be very light. While the showers may be light, the effect of all the cloud cover on the lows will be heavy. The temperatures will be held up and will be quite warm for the season. The average low that we’re forecasting tonight (44 degrees) is 4 degrees warmer than the average high for this time of the year! Some areas will drop into the upper 30s, but that will be confined to the high elevation areas.

Tomorrow, the chance for showers will take us through the morning commute and up to around the lunch hour before ending. Overall, we’ll see a mix of sun and clouds and mild temperatures once again, although it will be a couple of degrees cooler than it was today. Highs will be in the lower to middle 50s.

Tomorrow night, lows will drop into the mid-30s as slightly cooler air moves into the area for a brief period.

The extended forecast starts even milder than the temperatures are today. Highs will push towards, and eventually exceed, 60 degrees. Along with the warmer weather, however, will come a chance for rain. We’ll be tracking a strong system that will bring us a chance for rain beginning on Friday and lasting through Sunday.

There is a lot of moisture for this system to work with, and the amounts of rain are going to be impressive. Some parts of the area will see more than 2″ of rain over the next seven days.

The good news is that areas that are expected to pick up the heaviest rain are also fairly dry areas. The Weather Prediction Center does have areas in southwestern Virginia in the Excessive Rainfall Outlook (meaning that there is a chance for flooding rains), but it is just outside of our area.

Along with the heavy rain, the next storm has much colder air behind it. Highs will go from the lower 60s all the way down to the middle to upper 30s. The rain that we see on Sunday could change over to snow late in the day as temperatures plummet. The colder weather does not last long, however. Highs are back to above the normal as we end the extended forecast.