CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Flash flooding is possible in West Virginia this weekend.
The remnants of Tropical Storm Bill will enter the Mountain State from the west Saturday afternoon according to National Weather Meteorologist Dave Marsalek.
“Just generally all across the area we want people to be aware of the amounts of rain that could be coming,” Marsalek told MetroNews Friday.
The forecast is calling for anywhere from 1 to 3 inches from Saturday afternoon through Saturday night. That’s something the state could probably handle had it not been for the rain that’s already fallen this week, Marsalek said.
“A lot of the smaller creeks and streams are still running on the high side so we’re kind of starting in the hole already,” he said.
It’s been kind of difficult for the weather service to predict exactly where the heaviest rain will end up. It could be somewhere between the northern part of the coalfields to the U.S. Route 50 corridor. Heavy rain and even thunderstorms are possible.
“Some of those amounts are going to be locally heavier, some may not get quite as much, but again, given the rainfall we’ve had it’s something we’re a little bit concerned about,” Marsalek said.
The remnants of Bill should be over the eastern mountains by Saturday night but that won’t signal a drier pattern for West Virginia according to Marsalek.
“We’re staying in the wetter pattern and there will be in more rounds of showers and thunderstorms as we start the new work week,” he said.