MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A heat advisory is in effect for most of the state through Friday.
MetroNews Accuweather Meteorologist Jeff Nordean said the similar heat wave was six years ago, nearly to the day.
“The last time we saw a seven-day stretch of 90-degree weather was back in 2018, specifically between July 4 and July 10,” Nordean said. “Beyond that, it was back in 1993 that we had a seven-day stretch of this extreme heat.”
J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital Medical Director Dr. Owen Lander said people who plan to be outside should drink plenty of water and other fluids. Anyone outside, and especially those who work outside, should drink twice as much as they normally would and exert themselves about half as much as well. If you can, stay inside with a fan or air conditioner.
“You’ve got to mix it up with something that has electrolytes in it,” Dr. Lander said. “Some sort of sports drink, not just pure water, or eating crackers, nuts, or a salty food.”
Monitoring what comes out of your body is as important as what goes in. If urine becomes dark in color or infrequent, that’s a sign you are not adequately hydrated. Lander said people on heart medicine should take extra precautions.
“Some are more severe than others, but they all, to some degree, impede or impair your body’s ability to compensate for and dissipate heat,” Lander said.
The current heat wave is unrivaled in recent years and remains about 10 degrees higher than what is expected in this area for this time of year.
“Five, six, seven days of 90-degree weather is unprecedented for mid-June; I would even extend that to July,” Nordean said.
Nordean said the heatwave will exit Sunday with a high likelihood for a thunderstorm that will clear the atmosphere and cool things down, but even that cool down won’t bring temperatures back into the normal range for this time of year.
“By the time we get to Monday of next week, we’ll be in the upper 80s, which for this time of year is still well above average,” Nordean said. “The average is 80 degrees.”