CHARLESTON, W.Va. — North central West Virginia could be in for some industrial strength weather by Wednesday morning.
Forecasters at the National Weather Service Charleston Bureau say a line of powerful and fast moving storms is headed into the northeastern part of West Virginia late Tuesday and Tuesday night.
“It will be fairly fast moving, maybe only a couple of hours worth of thunderstorms,” said Meteorologist John Victory, “But they can produce heavy rainfall.”
Victory said along with the rain the region could see high winds and hail which accompanies the storm. The bigger problem is the rainfall the region has already experienced, which has left the ground unable to absorb any more moisture.
“That’s the problem, they had quite a bit of rain,” Victory said. “In this kind of atmosphere, we could have one to two inches of rain an hour. The ground is saturated and flash flooding is possible.”
A flash flood watch is posted through Tuesday night in 16 counties — Jackson, Wood, Pleasants, Tyler, Roane, Wirt, Calhoun, Ritchie, Doddridge, Braxton, Gilmer, Lewis, Harrison, Taylor, Upshur and Barbour.