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Wintry mix slams West Virginia, with more accumulation and cold temps still coming – WV MetroNews

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Wintry mix slams West Virginia, with more accumulation and cold temps still coming – WV MetroNews


A winter storm that barreled into West Virginia dropped snow and ice across the state, making travel treacherous and knocking out power to thousands of residents in southern counties.

“Mother nature pretty well threw the kitchen sink at us last night,” state Transportation Secretary Jimmy Wriston said.

Forecasters predicted another wave of one to three inches of accumulation in the hours ahead and extremely cold temperatures at midweek.

“There’s a low behind this system that’s going to ride right behind it — wrap around; we’re going to get colder air injection and all the rain or whatever wintry mix precipitation that we have leftover is going to pretty much turn into all snow from west to east,” said National Weather Service meteorologist James Zvolensky.

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Then, Zvolensky told MetroNews, “We’re going to get really cold Wednesday night, Thursday night, even Friday night — down to single digits most of the areas.”

As of 9 a.m., Appalachian Power reported outages to43,000 West Virginia customers. The power company described complications from heavy accumulations of ice and snow coupled with low temperatures that can bring down utility poles, trees and limbs, resulting in a multi-day restoration event.

The power company also said extreme cold temperatures can cause line overload problems when trying to restore a large number of customers.

“In many cases, we must restore large outages in smaller groups, letting the electric load settle before restoring additional customers. Customers with outages can assist by turning off large electric users, such as heaters and water heaters until 15 or more minutes after power has been restored,” according to the power company.

Aside from emergency services, government activities were canceled everywhere. For example, legislative interim meetings that were supposed to start today were backed up until Tuesday. And Charleston Mayor Amy Goodwin’s State of the City address that had been set for tonight was instead put off until Thursday.

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“We keep our eye to the sky,” Goodwin said on “The Dave Allen Show” on WCHS Radio. “We’ve got 17 salt trucks that have been working around the clock. When I say around the clock, I mean around the clock.”

Goodwin continued by saying, “We planned for this, but it’s Mother Nature and we live in Appalachia. So snow is always an issue, but it is the ice that snarls traffic and causes most of our accidents and the power outages that you see.

“We are getting ready for another system to come through.”

City of Charleston Public Works Director Brent Webster described “incredible challenges” because of the weather that has already hit.

“Last night was a pretty incredible snowstorm, and then of course it did exactly what was forecast: it turned over to ice around 10 or 11 p.m. and then it ran through early this morning and that has created some incredible challenges above and beyond just salting and plowing,” Webster told MetroNews.

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“Now we have a lot of trees that went down. Many of them we’re clearing, but that’s taken away from our salting and plowing. Many others are in power lines, and of course AEP is a great partner, but of course we can’t work on downed, live lines.”

Webster continued, “It’s going to be a slow process. We’ve got more snow coming, I think one to three inches. It’s a bigger snowstorm than we’ve had for a while.”



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West Virginia

Man dies in southern W.Va. mining incident

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Man dies in southern W.Va. mining incident


CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) – A miner died Thursday after an incident at a coal mine in Wyoming County, West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey said.

The governor said it happened at the Lower War Eagle mine.

Morrisey released the following statement on Thursday evening:

“Denise and I were deeply saddened by the tragic loss of a coal miner today at the Lower War Eagle mine in Wyoming County. Our hearts go out to his family, loved ones, and coworkers during this sorrowful time.

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“The West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health, Safety, and Training responded immediately and is conducting a full investigation.

“Each day, West Virginia miners perform difficult and demanding tasks. They do this to provide for their families, to build the communities, and to forge a better future for the next generation of West Virginians. It is that work, their strength, and their dedication that defines our state and our nation.

“I ask that all West Virginians lift this miner’s family, friends, and community up in your prayers and keep them in your thoughts through the difficult days ahead.”

The victim’s name has not been released.

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Biggest Surprises and Disappointments from West Virginia’s 2025 Portal Class

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Biggest Surprises and Disappointments from West Virginia’s 2025 Portal Class


The transfer portal officially opens here in a couple of weeks, so before the madness begins, we’re going to take a look back at last year’s West Virginia portal class, highlighting some of the biggest surprises and disappointments.

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Biggest surprises

West Virginia University offensive lineman Donovan Haslam | Christopher Hall – West Virginia on SI
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For this group, we’re keeping it all positive. These are players who rose above expectations and turned out to be pretty solid players.

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OL Donovan Haslam (Austin Peay) – He’s far from a finished product, but he helped West Virginia get through some of its issues toward the end of the season when he replaced Walter Young Bear in the starting lineup. WVU will bring in competition for him, but he’s at least a capable option, just needs more development. That play he had dragging Diore Hubbard for a first down may have been a penalty, but it may have been the most determination we saw from a lineman all year.

BAN Devin Grant (Incarnate Word) – The stats may not show his impact, and sometimes that happens with a role player. His playmaking was very timely. Every time the Mountaineers desperately needed a sack, tackle for loss, or turnover, Grant delivered. He’s someone the staff would love to have for another year.

LB Ben Bogle (Southern Illinois) – Although he didn’t start, Bogle was the Mountaineers’ best run defender in the second level, and it really wasn’t close. As a matter of fact, he graded out as the best run stopper on the entire team. He’ll be in contention to start at the MIKE spot in 2026.

Biggest disappointments

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West Virginia University Bandit Jimmori Robinson | Christopher Hall – West Virginia on SI

Before I get started here, I’m not including offensive linemen Walter Young Bear and Kimo Makane’ole, simply because they did not come to WVU with big expectations. Yes, they played poorly, but this category is for players who didn’t live up to expectations, in one way or another.

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RB Tye Edwards (Northern Iowa) – Obviously, this isn’t a performance-based performance as Edwards injured his hip in the Backyard Brawl and was eventually lost for the season. Not having his physicality really hurt WVU’s offense and its ability to run the football. Had he been healthy, perhaps they could have won another game or two.

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RB Jaylan Knighton (SMU) – Who? Yeah, Jaylan Knighton, the guy who never played a down for the Mountaineers. The SMU transfer was expected to be the No. 2 to Jahiem White, which would have formed a pretty strong duo, albeit behind a bad offensive line. He had some academic issues that led to his dismissal in fall camp.

BAN Jimmori Robinson (UTSA) – Without question, the biggest disappointment of all. Robinson was expected to be an elite pass rusher for WVU and an all-league caliber player. I wouldn’t throw all of the blame at his feet, though. Some of it can be attributed to the late start with the NCAA, taking forever with his eligibility, which ended up going to court. Some of it could be the fit in the defense as well. Regardless, Robinson fell well short of expectations, finishing with just 0.5 sacks and 2.5 tackles for loss one year after recording 17 TFLs and 10.5 sacks at UTSA.

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MORE STORIES FROM WEST VIRGINIA ON SI

West Virginia Defensive Depth Chart Projection Entering Transfer Portal Season

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WVU Signee Amari Latimer Caps High School Career by Leading Sandy Creek to State Title

How West Virginia’s Signees Performed in the JUCO National Championship Game

Four Running Backs West Virginia Should Consider Pursuing in the Transfer Portal

Five Players WVU Fans May Not Know Yet Who Could Make a Difference in 2026

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WV Lottery excited about Powerball drawing, sixth largest jackpot ever – WV MetroNews

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WV Lottery excited about Powerball drawing, sixth largest jackpot ever – WV MetroNews


CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia Lottery is one of the millions around the nation that will have their eye on tonight’s Powerball drawing.

The Powerball jackpot sits at $1.25 billion, an estimated cash value of $572.1 million. That marks the sixth largest jackpot in the game’s history, and it is just the second time where the game has seen back-to-back jackpots over a billion dollars.

The drawing will be at 10:59 p.m.

“It’s exciting for the lottery and it’s exciting for our players,” said West Virginia Lottery acting director David Bradley. “As excited as we are for our players and for the state and the revenue it generates, we always encourage our players to play responsible.”

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Bradley says even if that billion-dollar ticket get hit elsewhere, there will be other big tickets to look out for tonight.

“We’re excited too about the other levels that win. People are excited when they win $5, $20, and $100, and we’re grateful for our players and our retailers and the people that support the lottery,” he said.

Bradley announced Tuesday morning during a lottery commission meeting that two other large tickets had been hit in the state in recent weeks.

A $500,000 ticket was purchased at Martinsburg Wal-Mart, and a $50,000 ticket was sold at the GoMart in Sophia.

In 2025 alone, four different million-dollar tickets were sold in the state. The most recent came a month ago from rural Hardy County at the Misty Valley Grocery in Mathias. Bradley said today that the ticket has not yet been claimed.

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Earlier in the year, million-dollar tickets were sold at the Par Mar #17 in Hurricane and the Mardi Gras Casino in Nitro. Neither ticket was claimed.

“When you buy a ticket, make sure you sign the back of it. We encourage all of our players to be sure to check those tickets because you never know. We tell them to look in their car seats, under the car seats, in their book bags, in their purses, gym bags, and jackets.”

WV Lottery financial successes:

The lottery is coming off a strong month of November, where revenues totaled $109,626,000, which is about $14 million ahead of projections.

Total traditional sales for the fiscal year are up six percent — an increase of $31 million from fiscal year 2025. As of the end of November, the Lottery is nearly 13 percent ahead of revenue projections for the year.

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So far this year, the Lottery has transferred nearly $300 million to the state for proceeds helping veterans and seniors, the state’s tourism department, the state School Building Authority, and the Promise Scholarship.

“At the Lottery, we do an awful lot of good and we’re important to the state budget. To do good for those programs out there, that’s what makes us happy. I want to make sure people know that when they play, it goes for a good cause.”



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