OAK HILL, WV (WOAY) – It has been another nice day around the region, although once again temperatures were a couple of degrees below the normal. We wound up in the upper 30s, with some lower 40s in a few spots. Under clear skies, tonight will be close to the normal as well, as we drop into the middle 20s.
The weekend features some mixed treats for us in southern West Virginia. After the cool start, we top out on Saturday with plenty of sunshine and highs in the 50s. It will be a great day to do anything outside, most of the snow is gone from the paved trails in town, although the hiking trails elsewhere are still pretty snow covered. The continued warmup is ahead of the next system to come into the area from the southwest and that will bring dramatic changes to our weather.
We’ve been tracking this next storm for several days now and in the last couple of days, it’s been behaving as expected. The questions regarding the storm were always about track and moisture content. The storm looks to pass to our south. It will also be able to tap into plentiful amounts of moisture from the Gulf. A couple of weeks ago, this would have led to a good amount of snow in the forecast. But the jet stream pattern has shifted, and warm air is dominant throughout the eastern two-thirds of the nation. With that in mind, heavy rain is possible beginning late Saturday night. In the highest elevations, some snow could mix in as temperatures there will be cold enough for that to happen.
As Sunday continues, the rain will continue as well and could be heavy at times. Luckily, the storm is a quick mover and won’t linger too long. But it will be around long enough to produce around an inch of rain in most areas. Once again, our timing is good. If we hadn’t seen the snowpack diminished by recent rains and warmer temperatures, we might be expecting some possible flooding issues. While we can’t rule that out, the chances for flooding are greatly reduced by these two factors.
With the extra cloud cover, temperatures on Sunday will not be as warm as they will be on Saturday, with highs in the lower 40s in most areas. The long-awaited spring-like temperatures – where the highs get into the 60s – will have to wait another couple of days to materialize.
