Elevated fire danger today, strong storms this weekend.

It was a very nice, Spring-like day around southern West Virginia with temperatures in the 70s in most areas. But as is often the case here in the Spring, the low humidity and breezy winds have elevated the fire danger. We saw a wildfire just south of the state line in Virginia yesterday, and while that fire is now mostly contained, the chance for more fires is still there and will be for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

Tonight, the winds will drop off, but the temperatures will stay elevated. The lows will be in the 50s—warmer than the highs we saw earlier this week! The warm temperatures will stay with us through most of the extended forecast, only dropping off to near-normal levels early next week after a front comes through. Even then, they’ll rebound and be back into the 70s by late next week.

As for precipitation, don’t bother washing the car this weekend as there will be plenty of rain, especially during the latter half of the weekend. The entire extended forecast features a chance for showers and storms. On Sunday night and into Monday morning, some of the storms that roll through with the front will be strong and possibly severe. For now, it looks like damaging winds will be far and away the main threat, but all hazards are in play. The Storm Prediction Center has placed parts of the area in the 15% risk area for severe storms in the Monday morning to Tuesday morning timeframe. Between Sunday morning and Monday morning, the Slight risk area is just off to our west, while we are in the Marginal risk category. Any severe storms that develop will most likely feature damaging winds, but all of the hazards are in play.

The other big concern will be flooding rain. There is a good amount of moisture for the storms to work with, but any rain-related concerns will involve ponding on the roads and standing water in low-lying spots. Significant flooding is not likely, but as always we’ll monitor the situation for you.