OAK HILL, WV (WOAY) – We saw some much-needed rain around the area between yesterday and today. Unofficially, the Raleigh County Memorial Airport in Beckley picked up just under a half inch of rain, all of it today. The Mercer County Airport saw right around three-quarters of an inch of rain. And it was widespread rain, with the radar estimating that almost everyone picked up some rain, and several locations in Raleigh, Nicholas, Mercer, McDowell, and Wyoming Counties picked up more than 1″.
Any rain is a good thing, as the drought continues. The front that produced the rain is well off to our southeast tonight, and skies have cleared. After a cool afternoon around the area, the clear skies and dry air should allow for some good cooling, and high-elevation areas will see patchy frost or possibly even a freeze by tomorrow morning. Frost Advisories and a Freeze Warning are in effect for those high-elevation locations. Most areas outside of the mountains will drop into the lower to middle 40s.
Tomorrow, we’ll see plenty of sunshine, and temperatures will rebound a bit compared to where they wound up this afternoon. The southerly flow returns ahead of our next front, which allows temperatures to rebound nicely after a cold start. Highs will get close to 70 degrees by the end of the day. There will be a few clouds around, but overall, the day should be sunny. Tomorrow night will not be as cold; lows will drop to near Beckley’s average for this time of the year, of 50 degrees.
Wednesday, another front will zip through the region, and with it, there will be a chance for showers and storms. Some of the storms could be on the strong side. Both of the high-resolution atmospheric models that we look at are forecasting some strong storms to move into the area on Wednesday afternoon and evening. This is the HRRR (High Resolution Rapid Refresh) model…
Damaging winds will be the main threat with any storms that do become severe. The Storm Prediction Center has placed parts of the area in the Marginal (Level 1 out of 5) Category for severe storms. More likely, there will be gusty but not severe winds and, on the positive side, heavy rain with some of the storms. Highs will be in the mid-60s and dropping as the front comes through. By Thursday, we’ll be set up for one more cool day around the region before a big warm-up by early next week. Patchy frost is again possible Friday morning. After more showers during the first half of the weekend, temperatures begin to climb, with highs in the mid-80s by next Monday!
