Alert archive / West Virginia / Extreme Cold Warnings in 2026

Extreme Cold Warning 3, NWS Charleston, WV

January 31, 20264 counties in West Virginia

NWS Charleston, WV issued this extreme cold warning at Jan 31, 2026, 12:10 AM EST for 4 counties in West Virginia. It took effect at Jan 31, 2026, 7:00 PM EST. It was in force for 18 hr. No storm report in the archive falls inside the area while it was in force.

The area

The counties it named.

The facts

Issued: Jan 31, 2026, 12:10 AM EST (05:10 UTC)
In effect from: Jan 31, 2026, 7:00 PM EST
Expired: Feb 1, 2026, 1:00 PM EST
In force: 18 hr
Issued by: NWS Charleston, WV

Counties Nicholas County, WV, Pocahontas County, WV, Randolph County, WV, Webster County, WV

The radar

The Charleston,WV radar (KRLX), 127 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 05:09 UTC, the scan nearest the moment this went out.

Open the radar archive at this moment

The archived warnings, watches and discussions in force at that minute are drawn over the scan, this one among them.

The nearest sounding before it

Washington/Dulle, VA (KIAD), launched 00:00Z, 5.2 hours before the alert went out and 255 km from the middle of its area. This is the routine balloon launch nearest before it, the air the forecaster had in hand, not a measurement taken for the alert.

Skew-T log-p

Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.

Hodograph

The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km.

Mixed-layer CAPE: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: No buoyant parcel
Mixed-layer LCL: 1739 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 52 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: -119 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: -49 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before this extreme cold warning went out, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Charleston, WV wrote its last area forecast discussion before this extreme cold warning went out at Jan 30, 6:36 PM EST, 5 hours 34 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jan 30, 6:36 PM EST, 5 hours 34 minutes before

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The office that day

Everything else NWS Charleston, WV issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jan 31, 12:10 AM EST	Cold Weather Advisory	RLX	Barbour, Boone, Braxton, Cabell, Calhoun, Clay and 27 more	35 hr

Nearby

Extreme Cold Warnings in West Virginia, 2026 Every extreme cold warning in 2026

Sources

The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.