First Warning Forecast | Morning Storms Pass, Heat Rebuilds

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) - Already from the start today, we’ve been on our toes, tracking some rowdy storms as they arced southward through much of West Virginia, bringing frequent lightning and flooding downpours. As the air quiets down following their departure, it also reloads given the high heat content with or without sunshine. Now, where the Sun is able to break through, expect those oppressive temperatures to spike quickly to the 90s. It will be cooler in the areas where the storms went through, but it doesn’t mean those locations are free from risk of new storms later on. Given today’s early rains, the concern is elevated for our western counties in Ohio and Kentucky for heightened vulnerability for strong thunderstorms as well as the oppressive heat before they get there. The risk for storms will persist into the night, but you should expect at least some reprieve between episodes of rain, hopefully enabling all the evening events to get in just fine. Today is a great day to keep our free weather app handy! Flooding will be the main threat with these storms, although we may still see thunderstorms awarded “severe” status because of the gusty winds that often rush out ahead of this level of downpour.

A front is slowly progressing to our region from the north, providing the initial breeding ground for these storms before they rush southward on their own power, gobbling up the most attractive air as they go. This front will be part-way into our region by tomorrow morning, needing a second push to get it out tomorrow afternoon. This will instigate some more scattered storms, but they should not end up as strong as the ones we see today (unless there’s yet still some air that hasn’t been worked over yet by storms. Temperatures Saturday will still be in the 80s, and the unseasonable mugginess will finally loosen its grip on us and head south Sunday. An isolated shower can still pop on Sunday, but we’re primarily looking at the southern mountains for that by then.

Next week finally turns a proper corner and gives more pleasant weather to our region. Temperatures will initially hang out near seasonable levels in the mid-80s on Monday and Tuesday, then another (weaker) storm system drops through on Thursday allowing a few garden-variety showers to herald a return to the 70s right before we start the Labor Day weekend.

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