CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The National Weather Service reports training thunderstorms over eastern Kanawha County caused up to 5 inches of rainfall in a very short period of time Monday morning. The situation created the high water which caused a lot of damage to homes and roads along Winifrede Hollow and other locations in eastern Kanawha County.
Weather station located at the WV Turnpike Chelyan Maintenance Garage recorded 4.16″ of rain before losing comms yesterday morning around 830 am. The station recorded 1.31″ of rain in 15 minutes ending at 645 am with a measured peak rain rate of 8.00 inches per hour at 6:42 am! pic.twitter.com/5IwRBP0Tty
— NWS Charleston, WV (@NWSCharlestonWV) August 29, 2023
“Showers set up over the same location so there was some training and within those there was heavy rain,” said Meteorologist Jennifer Berryman of the National Weather Service in Charleston.
Berryman said a few other locations north and east of the area also had training storms, but none to the level of those which caused widespread damage in places like Winifrede and Slaughter’s Creek.
As victims cleanup and assess damage to their property, the last thing they need to hear is it could hit again, but Berryman said unfortunately that is the case. An area east of I-79 between Charleston and Clarksburg and east of U.S. Route 119 between Charleston and Williamson is the area of concern where Berryman indicated heavier rainfall is coming tonight and tomorrow.
“We do have a flood watch out that goes through 2 a.m. Wednesday. We will have to continue to monitor within that area once things start setting up. It’s possible more storms could cross over those heavy hit locations, but it is possible as well that things could shift a bit, but throughout that whole section there is the potential for some heavy rain.”