CHARLESTON, W.VA. — If you were able to special order weather for a holiday weekend, this would be the forecast you’d pick.
“We’ve got a nice high pressure system building in and pretty much no chance of rain and cooler temperatures,” said Meteorologist Liz Somerville of the National Weather Service in Charleston. “Our highs will be in the upper 70’s and low 80’s.”
The high temperatures will also come with almost no humidity. Such a forecast is often unheard of in West Virginia during the summertime, but is a welcome relief to the pattern we’ve experienced in recent days.
Those who chose to head to the beach, particularly the Outer Banks of North Carolina, are disappointed as Hurricane Arthur approaches the coast and prepares to make landfall on the Carolina Coast. Somerville doesn’t think West Virginia will feel any impacts from the storm.
“It’s pretty far out for us,” said Somerville. “I don’t think we’re going to see anything in the way of rain from that, it should pretty much leave us alone and it will be more to the south and east of us.”
Flood watches were posted for Berkeley and Jefferson Counties with the storm bearing down on the east coast. Somerville said that was likely from rain associated with Arthur and noted the eastern slopes of the mountains have received more rain in recent weeks than the rest of West Virginia, creating conditions for flooding.