WOAY-TV (WOAY-TV): Just as we careen out of an Arctic blast, one fly in the ointment is a series of gusty frontal systems that will slam our state this week.
A Foehn wind event accelerates strong winds that push off a mountainside into a valley. A cold front that doesn’t have any cold air behind it will accelerate the gusts down the Allegheny Ridge spine into the eastern West Virginia Panhandle on Tuesday. This will lead to thousands of power outages. A second more powerful front will instigate gusty winds that will expand farther south into the Greenbrier Valley on Wednesday afternoon.
Our region is more susceptible to Foehn winds in late spring and early fall, but we did see one last year on January 12, 2024. Wind gusts reached 53 to 63 mph and considerable wind damage was seen along Route 19. The last time the eastern West Virginia Panhandle experienced a Foehn wind was January of 2003. Considerable damage was produced from Mineral County to Grant, Hardy and Pendleton County.
