21-05-2025
Heavy storm front reaches the region
BLUEFIELD – Flood watches and tornado watches populated weather maps Tuesday as a storm front reached the mountains of southern West Virginia and Southwest Virginia.
Rainfall predictions for both Virginias varied from area to area. The National Weather Service in Blacksburg, Va., predicted that Mercer County would get a quarter inch of rain Tuesday with another three quarters of an inch that evening. No flood watch was declared.
Meanwhile, the weather service's Charleston office forecasted the neighboring McDowell County could receive three quarters of an inch to 1 inch of rain today during the early morning hours. McDowell County's flood watch was set to end at 2 a.m. today.
Further north in Raleigh County, Charleston's meteorologists predicted that three quarters to an inch of rain could fall. The county's flood watch was scheduled to end at 2 a.m. today.
Forecasters with the National Weather Service in Charleston also issued tornado watches for counties in southern West Virginia and Southwest Virginia.
In southern West Virginia, the National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for the counties of McDowell, Wyoming, Boone, Cabell, Lincoln, Logan, Mingo and Wayne counties. The watch continued until 8 p.m. Tuesday.
The Southwest Virginia counties of Buchanan, Russell, Dickenson, Lee, Scott, Washington and Wise were also put under a tornado watch. Like the watches in West Virginia, this watch continued until 8 p.m. Tuesday.
A warm front which was bringing conditions favorable for tornadoes seemed to be weakening after 5 p.m. according to Levi Cornett, a meteorologist in Charleston.
No reports of tornadoes or ones which could have been forming had been reported, but this did not mean the potential for them had passed.
"We're still keeping an eye out," Cornett said.
