CHARLESTON, WV (WOWK) – Even before the remnants of Hurricane Laura get a chance to move into the area, heavy rains have been seen and are expected again on Friday.
Flash flood warnings were issued for northern parts of the viewing area thanks to repetitive tropical-like downpours. The air is very rich with moisture and the upper level winds are not strong enough to push the showers away rapidly so the resulting rains have left nearly 3 inches of rain within just a few hours, causing flooding.
The rain on Friday appears to start to the north, then more storms will form to the south over areas that didn’t see rain on Thursday. The result is a greater chance of flash flooding on Friday in northern counties such as Jackson, Calhoun and Wood. Once again, the rain should be fairly spotty but tropical in nature with high water output thanks to the saturated airmass.
Once these storms form and die down after sunset on Friday, bands of showers and storms from the remnants of Laura will move into the area from the west even before sunrise on Saturday.
There is a chance that some of the storms on Friday could be severe. Much of the region is in the Moderate risk area (dark green) which is the lowest category of severe weather risk. Winds are the top risk in terms of severe storm chances.
Current model projections show Laura moving quickly through the area meaning the rainfall should not have a chance to become too significant in terms of flood risk. As for winds, the Predictor model shows areas along and south of I-64 will have a brief period with strong wind gusts of up to about 40 mph.
The areas on the highest hilltops will experience the highest wind gusts. While this is not in the range of severe wind speeds, there may be a need for a wind advisory in southern West Virginia. If there is you can find it, or any advisory, here.
By Saturday afternoon there could be a stray, leftover shower, but most of the region should be dry with lots of clouds.
Now is the time to get the StormTracker 13 app for free. Be sure to allow notifications and location services, and in the app click on the SafTNet Alert section enable all alerts and you’ll be ahead of the storm.
