On Monday, Craig and Jeanette Turner, owners of a property on Old Smithtown Road, survey the damage after a large red oak tree, estimated at roughly 200 years old, crashed to the ground, hitting two cars (below) and a portion of a house. Truine Halleck VFD responded to the scene. No one was injured. (Ron Rittenhouse/The Dominion Post)
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Morgantown area well ahead of normal rainfall numbers for June

by Ben Conley, The Dominion Post

MORGANTOWN — National Weather Center Meteorologist Lee Hendricks said between 1.5 and 4 inches of rain fell in Monongalia County Monday evening, depending on the location.

That included 2 inches at the Morgantown Lock and Dam and 2.31 inches at the Morgantown Municipal Airport, which along with June 13, was its second date record for rainfall in the last eight days.

The previous record for June 21 was 1.29 inches in 1987.

With just under six inches of rain on the ground so far, Hendricks said the city of Morgantown is already 3.23 inches above the normal average rainfall for the month of June.

And the heavy rainfall is taking a toll.

These two vehicles were damaged when a large red oak tree fell at Craig and Jeanette Turner’s house on Old Smithtown Road.

MECCA 911 Director Jim Smith said calls came in for 18 trees down across the county Monday. Two of those, one on G Street and one on Smithtown Road, damaged homes.

“I think the ground is just so saturated and the leaves are largely out now holding onto water, which is adding that extra weight,” Smith said. “So the trees that were potentially ready to come down anyway, the saturation of the ground and the weight of the heavy leaves are bringing them down.”

Trees weren’t the only issue. Standing water on I-68 caused a brief closure of the interstate around 7 p.m.

There was no additional flood damage reported by the city of Morgantown or the Morgantown Utility Board.

Travis Rowan, part owner of Shorty Anderson’s Auto Service, said his shop was not damaged by Monday’s rain.

The garage has been closed since the last storms destroyed equipment and left a layer of mud inside.

Stewart Street, where the shop is located, did see some flooding Monday. Rowan said that was partly because the drains on the road are still filled with gravel from the previous storms.

While the rain this month is ahead of normal June pace for the Morgantown area, it’s nowhere near record pace.

For that you need to go back to June of 1939, when 13.36 inches of rain fell in 31 days.

Hendricks said that’s not only a record for June, it’s literally the high-water mark for any single month on record dating back to 1872.

According to Hendricks, today and Thursday are expected to be clear, but clouds will make a return Friday evening.

“From there, we’ll have a chance of rain every day, Saturday through Monday,” he said.

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