WHEELING, W.Va. (WTRF) — We haven’t even finished March yet…but it’s already time for spring severe weather round 2.
And this time Mother Nature is planning a knockout punch even stronger than last week.
With winds approaching 60 miles an hour, we can expect lights to go out and signs to shake.
While the worst of it will likely be felt in parts of Pennsylvania, the Ohio Valley is gearing up to be hit with high velocity—especially the ridges of Marshall and Wetzel Counties.
The higher elevation, the more likely the wind is to accelerate as it moves upwards, causing stronger wind gusts.
Adam Feick, Stormtracker7 Meteorologist
The Stormtracker 7 team expects it to blow through town beginning around 8 in the morning.
They say we’ll feel the worst of it in the afternoon before it mellows out by dinnertime.
This time, the ground won’t be saturated by two to three inches of rain like before.
But watch out…because some of the trees that survived last week’s blast may finally give way this week.
So a lot of large trees are tipped over, uprooted, and there are still trees that are a little bit more on the loose end that could easily come over if we see more strong winds.
Adam Feick, Stormtracker7 Meteorologist
The story of last weekend was of power outages, with some 45,000 West Virginia homes going off the grid…some through early in the week.
American Electric Power says they’re preparing for a repeat of last week…but tonight is the time to charge your phone and pick up bottled water.
AEP is closely monitoring the weather over the next few days as high winds are forecasted. Preparations are being made in anticipation of localized impact to utilities. Crews are staging and preparing equipment in the event of power outages or downed trees.
Joelle Moray, AEP External Affairs Manager
With the utilities just a fallen tree limb away from malfunctioning, batteries are preferable to candles when it comes to lighting your home.
Let’s say something falls on a gas line or something, or something gets ripped up. Especially if trees near gas lines get ripped up, you could have gas leaking. If you light a candle, boom.
Adam Feick, Stormtracker7 Meteorologist
The new month may not be greeting us in the most friendly way.
But it’s time to welcome in spring however it appears…and think of the April flowers that will eventually come.
This weekend 7News will be on watch for any updates regarding power restoration.
You can find those as soon as they come in on air and online.