By Chris Lawrence, CLawrence@WVRadio.com
CHARLESTON — 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 said that will create the possibility of rain and should cool things off for the weekend.
“We’ll remain in the 90s through mid-week, but then cooling down by Friday and Saturday,” he said.
Although the heat and humidity have peaked in the past several days, Zwier said there haven’t been very many pop-up showers and thunderstorms, which are always possible.
“There have been some, but for the most part the upper atmosphere has been warm enough to keep those from even developing,” he said.
Here in Morgantown, expect temperatures hit the 90 degree mark today. Wednesday and Thursday, AccuWeather senior meteorologist John Gresiak said it will remain hot and humid, though cloud cover “may hold the heat down” a few degrees, resulting in highs in the upper-80s.
By the weekend, he added, “It should be really comfortable.”
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.
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