Rainy days ahead this week

OAK HILL, WV (WOAY) – It was another nice start to the day around the area. While there was some patchy fog around, it wasn’t as widespread or as thick as it has been recently. With fewer showers yesterday, there was less ambient moisture around. Later today and tonight, we’ll reverse the recent trends as the number of showers and storms will increase, thanks to an upper-level disturbance that will move into the region.

The low will find the environment to its liking with plenty of moisture to work with, as high pressure off the Atlantic coast will pull moisture into the region from the Atlantic and Gulf. That could lead to flooding issues for locations underneath the showers and storms since they won’t be quick movers and there is already plenty of moisture in the soil from the persistent rains of the past few weeks.

The pattern of high daily rain chances will last through the early part of the extended forecast. Over the next few days, several other disturbances will cross the region and will combine with the favorable surface conditions to produce showers and storms.

As will be the case today, none of the storms are expected to be severe, although some of the storms could feature gusty winds. Later in the extended forecast, rain chances will drop as a weak area of high pressure will set up over western North Carolina. Rain chances will drop to a more typical summertime level, around 30 to 40% each day, and the timing will also be typical for summer: the storms will develop in the afternoon, flourish during the early evening, then fade after sunset.

While rain chances will change over the seven days, the same can’t be said for the temperatures. Both highs and lows will be within a degree or two each day throughout the extended forecast. Highs will stay in the lower to mid-80s, and lows will be in the mid-60s. Both are near the normal plus a degree or two on both ends of the scale. After the end of the extended forecast, there are hints at a cooldown as a front will make its way out of Canada and stall south of the Great Lakes. How far south it gets will determine whether we see a cooldown or not – at the moment, it doesn’t look like it.