CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Heat advisories remained in affect Sunday for much of the Mountain State following hot temperatures Saturday that broke a record in the Northern Panhandle.
“They did have a record in Wheeling. They reached 96 (degrees). The old record was 93,” said Mike Charnick, meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
Temperatures reached the low to mid 90s in parts of West Virginia, he said. Charleston hit 94 degrees, Huntington was at 92, Morgantown hit 94 and Parkersburg reached 92.
Some of the hottest places in West Virginia were in the western part of the state near Huntington and Parkersburg where heat index values were well over 100 degrees.
“A heat index is a combination of the air temperature and also the dew point, which is a measure of the moisture in the atmosphere, so those two things combined make the air temperature feel warmer on your skin then what it really is outside,” Charnick explained.
Even Snowshow Mountain in Pocahontas County stayed on the warm side. That area reached 80 on Saturday, according to the NWS. The record high temperature there is 87 which was set back in 1986.
Sunday’s forecast was expected to stay fairly the same. Charnick said temperatures could reach the low to mid 90s across the state with heat index values around 100-105 and dew points near the low to mid 70s.
The NWS had heat advisories in place until 8 p.m. Sunday for Wayne, Cabell, Mason, Jackson, Wood, Pleasants, Tyler, Lincoln, Putnam, Kanawha, Roane, Wirt, Calhoun, Ritchie, Doddridge, Mingo, Logan, Boone, Clay, Braxton, Gilmer, Lewis, Harrison and Taylor counties.
Meteorologists are recommending residents drink lots of water and to take frequent breaks from the outdoors to avoid heat stroke, heat exhaustion or any other heat related illness.
Charnick said a slight cool down is in the forecast for this week.
“Looking at Monday, temperatures are going to come back down a little bit only around 90 degrees or so,” he said. “Then Tuesday and Wednesday looks like we’re going to be back down into the upper 80s.”
Scattered thunderstorms in the state Monday afternoon are also a possibility, Charnick said.