Alert archive / West Virginia / Flash Flood Warnings in 2026

Flash Flood Warning 217, NWS Charleston, WV

September 20, 20268 counties in West Virginia

NWS Charleston, WV issued this flash flood warning at Sep 20, 2026, 3:44 AM EDT for 8 counties in West Virginia. It was in force for 5 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
Sep 20, 2026, 3:44 AM EDT (07:44 UTC)
Expired
Sep 20, 2026, 8:33 AM EDT
In force
5 hr
Issued by
NWS Charleston, WV
Area
Storm-based polygon
Flood severity
None

Counties Calhoun County, WV, Doddridge County, WV, Gilmer County, WV, Jackson County, WV, Ritchie County, WV, Roane County, WV, Wirt County, WV, Wood County, WV

The radar

The Charleston,WV radar (KRLX), 89 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 07:47 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

Cncnati-Daytn, OH (KILN), launched 00:00Z, 7.7 hours before the alert went out and 228 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-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 2026-09-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel. CAPE 2396 joules per kilogram.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.
HodographHodograph, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 2026-09-20The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 189 square meters per square second.1939Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
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
2396 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-17 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
994 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
189 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
210 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 flash flood 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 flash flood warning went out at Sep 20, 2:28 AM EDT, 1 hour 16 minutes earlier. Its key messages:

  • 1) Unsettled through mid week amid a cooling trend with improving conditions for the end of the week and the weekend.
Area forecast discussion, Sep 20, 2:28 AM EDT, 1 hour 16 minutes before
Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Charleston WV
228 AM EDT Sun Sep 20 2026

.WHAT HAS CHANGED...
No significant changes were made from the previous forecast
package.

&&

.KEY MESSAGES...
1) Unsettled through mid week amid a cooling trend with
improving conditions for the end of the week and the weekend.

&&

.DISCUSSION...
KEY MESSAGE 1...

Active weather will persist through today and past mid week. A
frontal boundary will drape across the region and will meander
through Monday while pushing slowly south and finally exiting
by mid day Monday. This feature will provide chances for shower
and storm activity and where a few storms could be strong to
severe which should be isolated in nature. The main threat will
be damaging wind. Much of the activity will be confined to the
northern parts of our Country Warning Area where higher
probabilities of precipitation exist.

Another aspect is the area will be under an excessive rainfall
outlook and the threat of heavy downpours amid thunderstorm
activity will likely cause some instances of flash flooding to
flood prone or low lying areas if hit repeatedly. This will be
supported by anomalously high PWATs for this time of year. Once
the feature exits a low pressure system digging and
strengthening across the Great Lakes will come into the region
and promote synoptic scale ascent to broaden the unsettled
weather across our entire area.

For much of Monday and Tuesday and even Wednesday will be under
the influence of broad low pressure and chances for shower and
thunderstorms. This is especially for Tuesday and Wednesday
with high probabilities of precipitation especially during
the daytime. This activity along with weak cold air advection
will promote temperatures below seasonable starting Tuesday and
continuing into the weekend promoting comfortable weather amid
drier conditions as strong high pressure builds in for the the
end of the work week and for the weekend.

&&

.AVIATION /06Z SUNDAY THROUGH THURSDAY/...
A very active morning with shower and thunderstorm activity
possible at all sites. With calming flow at the surface some
sites may endure fog development such as CRW through the
morning. Enough cloud coverage, surface flow and convection
should depress much development elsewhere, however there may be
times at which a site decouples and fog may form temporarily or
stay until 13/14Z. Or the other scenario is that shower activity
will lower VIS and it may take a short while before lifting
back to VFR. Thereafter, any low stratus will lift a few hours
after the fog dissipates and VFR should prevail the rest of the
TAF period.

FORECAST CONFIDENCE AND ALTERNATE SCENARIOS THROUGH 06Z MONDAY...

FORECAST CONFIDENCE: Medium.

ALTERNATE SCENARIOS: Restrictions and timing associated with
fog will likely vary.Timing of showers/storms may vary from the
forecast.

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.

DATE                              SUN 09/20/26
UTC 1HRLY       06   07   08   09   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17
EDT 1HRLY       02   03   04   05   06   07   08   09   10   11   12   13
CRW CONSISTENCY  M    M    M    M    M    M    L    M    H    M    M    H
HTS CONSISTENCY  M    M    M    M    M    L    H    H    H    H    H    H
BKW CONSISTENCY  M    L    L    L    L    L    M    H    H    H    H    H
EKN CONSISTENCY  L    L    L    L    L    M    L    L    M    H    H    M
PKB CONSISTENCY  L    L    L    M    M    L    M    M    H    L    H    H
CKB CONSISTENCY  M    H    H    H    M    H    H    M    H    L    H    H

AFTER 06Z MONDAY...
IFR conditions possible in showers and storms each day through
mid week.

&&

.RLX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
WV...None.
OH...None.
KY...None.
VA...None.

&&

DISCUSSION...JZ
AVIATION...JZ

In the hours before

Special weather statement, Sep 20, 1:06 AM EDT, 2 hours 38 minutes before
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Special weather statement, Sep 20, 2:20 AM EDT, 1 hour 24 minutes before
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Special weather statement, Sep 20, 2:54 AM EDT, 50 minutes before
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Special weather statement, Sep 20, 3:23 AM EDT, 21 minutes before
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The office that day

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

IssuedProductOfficeCountiesLasted
Sep 20, 12:18 AM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRLXMason42 min
Sep 20, 1:06 AM EDTSpecial Weather StatementRLXWood39 min
Sep 20, 1:38 AM EDTSpecial Weather StatementRLXJackson, Ritchie, Wirt, Wood67 min
Sep 20, 1:42 AM EDTFlash Flood WarningRLXJackson, Mason, Wood4 hr
Sep 20, 2:20 AM EDTSpecial Weather StatementRLXCalhoun, Doddridge, Gilmer, Jackson, Ritchie, Roane55 min
Sep 20, 3:10 AM EDTSpecial Weather StatementRLXBraxton, Calhoun, Gilmer, Harrison, Lewis, Roane and 2 more65 min
Sep 20, 3:23 AM EDTSpecial Weather StatementRLXJackson, Mason, Ritchie, Wirt, Wood67 min
Sep 20, 4:19 AM EDTSpecial Weather StatementRLXCabell, Putnam, Roane41 min
Sep 20, 4:38 AM EDTFlash Flood WarningRLXJackson, Mason4 hr
Sep 20, 4:40 AM EDTFlash Flood WarningRLXBraxton, Calhoun, Clay, Gilmer, Lewis, Nicholas and 2 more5 hr
Sep 20, 5:30 AM EDTFlash Flood WarningRLXCabell, Jackson, Kanawha, Mason, Putnam, Roane and 1 more4 hr
Sep 20, 5:43 AM EDTFlash Flood WarningRLXClay, Nicholas, Pocahontas, Randolph, Webster4 hr
Sep 20, 6:06 AM EDTAreal Flood WarningRLXJackson, Mason, Wood17 hr
Sep 20, 7:20 AM EDTFlash Flood WarningRLXBoone, Cabell, Clay, Kanawha, Lincoln, Putnam and 1 more3 hr
Sep 20, 8:23 AM EDTAreal Flood WarningRLXJackson, Mason, Putnam11 hr
Sep 20, 8:33 AM EDTAreal Flood WarningRLXCalhoun, Doddridge, Gilmer, Jackson, Ritchie, Roane and 2 more5 hr
Sep 20, 9:05 AM EDTAreal Flood WarningRLXCabell, Jackson, Kanawha, Mason, Putnam, Roane and 1 more5 hr
Sep 20, 9:19 AM EDTAreal Flood WarningRLXBraxton, Calhoun, Clay, Gilmer, Lewis, Nicholas and 3 more5 hr
Sep 20, 9:23 AM EDTAreal Flood WarningRLXClay, Fayette, Nicholas, Pocahontas, Randolph, Webster5 hr
Sep 20, 9:54 AM EDTAreal Flood WarningRLXBoone, Cabell, Clay, Kanawha, Lincoln, Nicholas and 2 more3 hr
Sep 20, 2:11 PM EDTFlood WatchRLXBarbour, Boone, Braxton, Cabell, Calhoun, Clay and 28 more3 days
Sep 19, 11:20 PM EDTSpecial Weather StatementRLXAthens55 min
Sep 19, 11:42 PM EDTSpecial Weather StatementRLXVinton48 min
Sep 19, 11:48 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRLXAthens, Meigs, Vinton42 min
Sep 20, 12:25 AM EDTFlash Flood WarningRLXAthens, Vinton5 hr
Sep 20, 12:33 AM EDTSpecial Weather StatementRLXVinton27 min
Sep 20, 12:55 AM EDTSpecial Weather StatementRLXMeigs50 min
Sep 20, 12:56 AM EDTSpecial Weather StatementRLXVinton49 min
Sep 20, 1:16 AM EDTFlash Flood WarningRLXAthens, Meigs, Vinton4 hr
Sep 20, 2:00 AM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRLXAthens, Gallia, Jackson, Meigs, Vinton60 min
Sep 20, 2:10 AM EDTFlash Flood WarningRLXJackson, Vinton3 hr
Sep 20, 2:54 AM EDTSpecial Weather StatementRLXAthens, Gallia, Jackson, Meigs66 min
Sep 20, 4:10 AM EDTSpecial Weather StatementRLXGallia, Jackson, Lawrence65 min
Sep 20, 4:56 AM EDTAreal Flood WarningRLXAthens, Meigs, Vinton18 hr
Sep 20, 4:58 AM EDTAreal Flood WarningRLXJackson, Meigs, Vinton18 hr
Sep 20, 4:59 AM EDTAreal Flood WarningRLXAthens, Vinton6 hr
Sep 20, 12:24 PM EDTSpecial Weather StatementRLXPerry36 min
Sep 20, 1:07 PM EDTSpecial Weather StatementRLXMorgan23 min
Sep 20, 1:28 PM EDTSpecial Weather StatementRLXWashington32 min
Sep 20, 5:09 PM EDTSpecial Weather StatementRLXGreenup36 min
Sep 20, 5:42 PM EDTSpecial Weather StatementRLXGreenup33 min

Nearby

Flash Flood Warnings in West Virginia, 2026Every flash flood 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.