The Charleston Gazette

Hot Streak Continues...Still Waiting For Fay...

Under high pressure and partly cloudy skies, the temperature again made it into the 80s and 90s for most local areas. The one exception was in the mountain counties, where a southeasterly wind around a high pressure cell to our east brought upslope winds which mean more clouds and cooler temperatures for the higher elevations. As the air moves down the mountain slopes, valley areas warm up easily. A good example of that could be found at 4:00 this afternoon. Beckley was at a cool 77 degrees, while Hunting was roasting at 93 degrees!

For tonight, skies will be mostly clear and the temperature will make it down to a warm 63 degree low temperature. Friday was looking like it might cool down a bit as of yesterday, but now it looks like it will be another equally hot afternoon with the high making it up to 91 degrees.

The weekend still looks like a mixed bag of weather for the area. Saturday will still be under the influence of high pressure which will mean mostly sunny to partly cloudy skies along with an afternoon high temperature of 90 degrees. Sunday will still be warm, but a change will be taking place. A cold front will be approaching from the west which will bring a southwesterly flow of air. That will still keep things warm, with the afternoon high temperature making it up to 89 degrees. However, some moisture from Tropical Storm Fay will be getting entrained into the system which will give us a chance of showers and storms scattered around the area by the evening hours. There is a good chance the front may slow down, keeping the rainfall away until Monday. For now I will keep a chance of some rain in for late Sunday along with the warm and muggy conditions.

Monday will see a better chance of showers and storms from the front which will stall across the area, and the moisture from Fay. The front looks like it may meander around the area for several days, giving us the potential for some heavy rain at times. hopefully it will be nowhere near what they have seen in Central Florida, where some areas have already reported more than 24" of rainfall from Fay! Of course, we may be looking at an inch or two total if things work out the way the look at this time. Monday's high temperature will cool down from the clouds and rainfall to an afternoon maximum of 86 degrees.

Tuesday will also be mostly cloudy with showers and storms in the forecast. The high temperature will drop a couple of more notches to 84 degrees. At this time it looks like the heaviest rain from Fay's leftovers will be on Tuesday or Wednesday. However, the moisture could hang around for a longer stretch of time. The reason Tuesday and Wednesday look especially wet is because the cold front will be lingering around to act as a trigger to set off the showers and storms. Wednesday will be looking at an afternoon high temperature of 85 degrees.

Thursday will also be mostly cloudy with scattered showers and storms, as will Friday. Both days should come in with afternoon high temperatures of 83 degrees. Next Saturday and Sunday also look to be mostly cloudy with a chance of afternoon and evening showers and storms. Saturday will be expecting a high temperature of 82 degrees, and Sunday should top out at 85 degrees.

One Final Note: The last 12 days have brought a scant .02" of rainfall to Charleston. During that time, we average more than an inch and a half of rainfall. However, due to the wet conditions we have seen much of the year before this streak, we are still a whopping 3.47" above normal for precipitation for the year!

--Jim Barach
Chief Meteorologist8/21/08

CHARLESTON AREA
7 DAY E X T E N D E D FORECAST

TODAY
AUG 21