Area Forecast Discussion
Issued by NWS Charleston, WV
Issued by NWS Charleston, WV
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560 FXUS61 KRLX 181450 AFDRLX AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION National Weather Service Charleston WV 950 AM EST Tue Nov 18 2025 .SYNOPSIS... A period of rain will continue through tonight. Rain continues turning into a showery Wednesday/Thursday, then a another rain event Friday. && .NEAR TERM /THROUGH TONIGHT/... As of 945 AM Tuesday... Temperatures across the former advisory area has risen above freezing by the time of writing. Therefore, the threat for freezing rain has ended and the Winter Weather Advisory has been canceled. Rest of forecast remains on track. As of 130 AM Tuesday... Key Message: A brief transition from freezing rain to all rain will likely occur this morning across the Middle Ohio Valley where a light glaze could cause slick spots on roadways, especially on overpasses and bridges. With optimum radiational cooling this morning amid mostly clear skies and calm winds temperatures will drop down to below freezing. Some areas will likely drop even further down into the 20s due to cold air drainage in valleys and cold spots. This will make a fairly good setup for the rain ahead of a system driving eastward toward us to create freezing rain potential in the morning. This could cause some slick spots where those areas are slow to recover from freezing temperatures and where roads are freezing or below. This would be a quick window as the sun comes up and recovers most of the area, however those cold spots will like have isolated areas of a glaze of ice if those areas do not recover fast enough. This will affect the morning rush hour commute to where a Winter Weather Advisory is in place to account for this as impacts would be greater under the morning commute from 6am to 10am. Significant impacts will be confined to those areas that are more sheltered. Some limited impacts could extend into our northern counties and parts of West Virginia. By early afternoon, the rain from the low pressure system and its vort max will continue to push in and spread the rain eastward. Forecast models do have a lot of dry air in place which will likely cause the rain to be light in nature to start off. The soundings have warmer temperatures than what is being observed, therefore the soundings really do not help in this winter precipitation transition, therefore elected to go with the blended model forecast to where any chance for snow or sleet is virtually wiped out. Rain and a few rumbles are possible today as the warm frontal boundary of the aforementioned system pushes north through the area. As we are in the warm sector today temperatures will rebound quickly into the upper 40s to mid 50s across the lowlands and 40s in the highest elevations. Tonight temperatures will only fall slightly due to the potential for cloud coverage and warm rain processes activity and those rain showers will persist into Wednesday morning. && .SHORT TERM /WEDNESDAY THROUGH THURSDAY/... As of 130 AM Tuesday... Wednesday looks to be drier as heights rise in anticipation of upper level ridging and surface high pressure building in throughout the day. There are chances in the forecast, but the probabilities are fairly low compared to Tuesday, with PoPs generally under the 25% mark. Models are all over the place for Thursday but there remains a slight chance for some shower activity in the form of rain under zonal flow and lowering heights. By the nighttime, a system originating from Texas, thanks again Texas, will be directed by anti-cyclonic flow due to a high pressure system south of us. This feature will start to affect our area by late Thursday night. This more potent southern stream of energy will lead to a much higher chance of widespread rain across the middle Ohio Valley with PoPs ranging from 60 to 80 percent by Friday morning. && .LONG TERM /THURSDAY NIGHT THROUGH MONDAY/... As of 130 AM Tuesday... Models have this system moving slowly to where its frontal boundary becomes qausi-stationary across our area into Saturday. The models are in fairly good agreement with this solution, therefore very high chances of rain will be left in the forecast for both Friday and Saturday to where probabilities of up to 90 are expected for Friday night and into Saturday morning. The chances will drop off by Saturday afternoon to around 30-40%, but shower activity may become more prevalent due to uncertainty where that frontal boundary will set up, and how long it will stall for. Models have the system kicking out toward the east by Saturday night and thereafter high pressure builds in for a two day break until the next system is forecast to impact the area possibly by midweek. Temperatures will not continue to rise past the short term period and more so flatten out to around seasonable for this period and beyond. && .AVIATION /14Z TUESDAY THROUGH SATURDAY/... As of 540 AM Tuesday... Precipitation will begin to overspread the region from west to east this morning and will continue through the day. Some of this precipitation may initially begin at FZRA before transitioning to all rain. Have included a 2hr PROB30 group at PKB to reflect some limited potential. VFR transitions to MVFR under some VIS/CIG restrictions for the late afternoon and evening. Winds will be on the light side through the day with a southeasterly component to it. IFR is expected thereafter for Wednesday morning under stratus developing on the backside of the system that brings the precipitation today. FORECAST CONFIDENCE AND ALTERNATE SCENARIOS THROUGH 12Z WEDNESDAY... FORECAST CONFIDENCE: Medium. ALTERNATE SCENARIOS: A brief period of FZRA is possible this morning at the western sites of PKB possibly HTS. IFR conditions possible in any heavier showers this afternoon and evening. EXPERIMENTAL TABLE OF FLIGHT CATEGORY OBJECTIVELY SHOWS CONSISTENCY OF WFO FORECAST TO AVAILABLE MODEL INFORMATION: H = HIGH: TAF CONSISTENT WITH ALL MODELS OR ALL BUT ONE MODEL. M = MEDIUM: TAF HAS VARYING LEVEL OF CONSISTENCY WITH MODELS. L = LOW: TAF INCONSISTENT WITH ALL MODELS OR ALL BUT ONE MODEL. UTC 1HRLY 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 00 01 02 EST 1HRLY 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 CRW CONSISTENCY H H H H M M M L M M L L HTS CONSISTENCY M H H M M M L M M M M M BKW CONSISTENCY H H H H H H H M H M M M EKN CONSISTENCY H H H M M M H M H H L H PKB CONSISTENCY M M M M H M H H M H M L CKB CONSISTENCY H H H M M M H M M H H M AFTER 12Z WEDNESDAY... IFR possible today in rain and through Wednesday morning under low stratus. && .RLX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... WV...None. OH...None. KY...None. VA...None. && $$ SYNOPSIS...JZ NEAR TERM...ARJ/JZ SHORT TERM...JZ LONG TERM...JZ AVIATION...JZ