A cool and wet week ahead

There have been plenty of clouds around the entire area today, helping to keep the temperatures down a bit compared to the norm. The showers were mainly confined to the southern areas, with almost all the rain falling from Beckley south to the state line and in southwest Virginia. There has been enough rain in these areas to make it a wet commute. Take extra time to get to your destinations as the night goes on, as the roads will be wet and ponding is possible.

By the time the night is over, lows will wind up in the upper 30s and lower 40s.

Tomorrow, we’ll see more chances for showers as the low-pressure center from the southwest moves through the area.

It will be breezy and cool again, as well, as the day is basically a carbon copy of today. Highs will be around 50 degrees.

An even better chance for rain is in the forecast for the middle of the week, as another low-pressure center comes into the area, this time from the more traditional westerly and northwesterly direction.

It may be coming from farther north than the early week system giving us rain today, but it will still have plenty of moisture from the Gulf to tap into. Heavy rain is possible with this second low, and many areas will pick up more than 2″ of rain over the next few days. If this were a normal situation in terms of moisture, we would be talking about possible widespread flooding.

But since it’s been so dry, the chances for flooding are much less. Still, the Climate Prediction Center has placed the entire area in the Marginal Risk for flooding rain from Wednesday into Thursday, due as much as anything to the rain that falls today and tomorrow, combining with the heavy rain during the middle of the week.

I expect some of the usual issues on the roads and low-lying spots rather than anything widespread.

The latter portion of the extended forecast will still feature cool temperatures and chances for rain every day except for Saturday. On that day, we’ll be between low-pressure systems. For now, it also looks like the football Friday night games should be ok weather-wise, with only a few showers around at kickoff.

For the video version of the forecast, be sure to copy and paste the link below into your browser…