First Warning Forecast | Fantastic Summer Finale
Though The First Day Of Fall Has Some Question-Marks.
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) - After “the usual” breakfast of morning fog and comfortable 50s, we’ll be treated to another delectable spread of sunshine and summery comfort. High temperatures will hang in the upper 70s to lower 80s, and we’ll finish the workweek off with another rain-free day. While many folks will be just fine with sunshine without-end, the agriculturally-minded among us know that we’ve got problems with a lack of rainfall in the western counties (and a surplus in the east). Burn bans are starting to appear in our Kentucky counties out ahead of the actual burn-ban season that starts in October. While we end the day with excellent spectating weather amidst temperatures dropping through the 70s and 60s during the high school football games, a tropical system is inching closer to the North Carolina coast. Acquiring the name “Ophelia”, it will be spreading downpours onshore and mainly hug the eastern side of the Appalachian mountains on Saturday, but it gets close enough to us that we’ll have to be watching for rain ourselves.
As this system (whether named “Ophelia” or not) wanders inland through Virginia on Saturday, its rains will spread westward toward and across the spine of the Appalachian mountains. Areas east of I-77 should be anticipating rainfall, particularly in the afternoon/evening, with upwards of 1″ of rain hitting those higher easter slopes. Areas west of I-77 will see a lot less, to none at all -- unfortunately granting those who have been rich with rain even more rain and those who have lacked continue to go without. Temperatures will also be in a spread, seeing the 70s in the western counties where even the clouds can break a bit and then in the eastern rains we’ll see temperatures hold in the 60s. This system pulls away Sunday morning, but we can still see a bit of lingering drizzle before gradually breaking out the clouds again. Next week we’ll be in bonafide “fall”, and the temperatures look to resume their afternoon perch in the pleasant 70s. We’ll still sorely need the rain in the western counties, and there are indications that there will be a few tossed our way mid-week, but nothing yet that looks particularly substantive.
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