CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia will have to endure several more days of scorching temperatures before a change in the current weather pattern. A ridge of high pressure lies over the east coast and it’s allowing humid and warm air from the Gulf of Mexico to flow as far north as the Ohio River valley and the Appalachian Mountains.
“That pattern has been pretty persistent lately and we’ve been getting a lot of that heat and humidity,” said Meteorologist Mike Zwier with the National Weather Service in Charleston.
The pattern won’t change until Thursday when a cold front moves across West Virginia. Zwier says that will create the possibility of rain, and cool things off for the weekend.
“We’ll remain in the 90’s through mid-week, but then cooling down by Friday and Saturday,” he said.
Although the heat and humidity have been peaked in the past several days, Zwier said there haven’t been very many pop up showers and thunderstorms although they are always a possibility.
“There have been some, but for the most part the upper atmosphere has been warm enough to keep those from even developing,” he said.
So far, Zwier said no record highs have been set in the last several days, although a few days have been close. Despite temperatures remaining above 90 this week for daytime highs, he still didn’t anticipate the mercury would rise to any record levels this week in West Virginia.