CHARLESTON, W.Va. — If you haven’t finished preparations for winter, your time is up. Forecasters with the National Weather Service in Charleston say a strong blast of arctic air will press into West Virginia Wednesday night making for a cold start to Thursday morning.
“Temperatures are expected to fall pretty rapidly overnight with winds kicking up,” said Meteorologist Dylan Cooper of the National Weather Service in Charleston. “It’s definitely a night to bundle up and especially with kids going to school and going to work, it’s going to be a day to wear your jacket.”
Fortunately there is very little moisture in the air which probably won’t translate the arctic front into any snow or ice, although that could be the case in the higher elevations.
“There may be some brief chance for wintry precipitation and maybe a little bit of icing early,” said Cooper. “There’s not a whole lot of moisture in the atmosphere that we’re going to see as the system comes through.”
The temperatures will stay in the teens and single digits through Friday night, but just as quickly as the cold air arrived, Cooper said it will depart.
“Tomorrow will be the coldest day we’ve seen this year, but the good news is as we get toward the weekend we’ll see a big change in the other direction,” said Cooper. “It looks like we’ll be pushing the 50’s by Saturday.”