Officials urge caution as West Virginia experiences drought conditions

WEST VIRGINIA (WCHS) — The weather across the state has been particularly dry recently. Sissonville Volunteer Fire Chief Zach Bess said it’s the driest he’s seen in years.

“This is probably one of the drier years we’ve had for sure,” Bess said. “And really the biggest thing is for people to just pay attention.”

The little to no rain increases the risk for forest and brush fires. Bess urges people to think before having a bonfire this fall.

“Staying with a fire, making sure that there’s a clean area around it, about five feet, and having a nearby water source to put it out in case something would go wrong,” he said.

WCHS Chief Meteorologist Doug Harlow said it could be getting a little more moist in the Mountain State though.

“The fact that we’re going to get some rain coming up here, hopefully that will kind of temper things down and keep this to just a short-lived duration,” Harlow said.

This time last year, West Virginia was facing drought-like conditions; something Harlow said is a result of climate change.

“The way climate change seems to be working, I mean you go from one extreme to another,” Harlow said. “So more droughts, but then on the other hand you can get into some extremely wet periods. Of course we’ve seen that even just this year. We’ve had floods and now we’re talking about a drought all sandwiched in the period of about six months.”

Some parts of the state experienced the worst drought they’ve ever seen, but Harlow is predicting rain clouds ahead.

“If we get a general one, two, three inches of rain through the rest of this upcoming week, that would definitely alleviate – probably wouldn’t wipe it out completely – but at least alleviate the more severe drought impacts to agriculture,” he said.