Severe Thunderstorm Watch This Evening
Reported by: Doug Harlow
Web Producer: Doug Harlow
Reported: Jul. 26, 2012 4:13 PM EDT
Updated: Jul. 26, 2012 4:21 PM EDT
Eyewitness News Photo
Charleston
, Kanawha County
, West Virginia
A Severe Thunderstorm Watch has been issued for all of Ohio and for the northern half of West Virginia until 10 PM. The worst weather was anticipated to hit the Watch area anywhere between 6 PM (Ohio) to midnight (East WV).
Kanawha, Putnam, Cabell, Nicholas and Clay counties were included in the Watch, as were all areas to the north.
A Watch means conditions are favorable for severe thunderstorms to form. As of 4 PM no Warnings were in effect but severe storms were impacting Columbus and Cincinnati
in Ohio.
Temperatures Thursday afternoon had warmed into the 90s, with a heat index (feels-like) temperature around 100 degrees...one of the hotter days in recent weeks. Meteorologist Doug Harlow says that an approaching slow-moving cold front is interacting with this hot and humid air to produce severe weather. While a "derecho" like the one that hit June 29 was not expected, some storms were anticipated to produce winds of 50 mph or greater, especially north of I-64 late this afternoon or evening.
With recent rains even wind gusts of 30-40 mph would be capable of bringing down trees due to the wet, soft ground. This could in turn lead to outages in some parts of the area tonight. Storms were expected to be weaker farther south into southern Kentucky and West Virginia and would arrive later at night.
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Doug Harlow
