West Virginia

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

Published

12 months ago

January 6, 2025

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.

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.

“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.

“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

More than 30,000 without power in West Virginia after strong winds overnight

Published

6 hours ago

December 19, 2025

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More than 30,000 without power in West Virginia after strong winds overnight

CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (WBOY) — A large portion of the Mountain State saw storms with gusty winds last night, which has resulted in several trees coming down across roads, thousands of power outages and schools being delayed and closed.

As of Friday morning, the WV 511 website displays multiple warnings of fallen trees and debris in roadways, including several in north-central West Virginia. Both Harrison and Marion County 911 logs show crews responding to several reports of trees down.

WV 511

The First Energy website also shows that a total of 36,688 of its customers are currently without power, with many still waiting for an estimated restoration time.

Due to these power outages, multiple schools throughout West Virginia have been delayed or closed for the day, including those in Barbour, Gilmer, Lewis, Marion, Ritchie, Taylor, and Upshur counties.

Regular trees weren’t the only ones forced down due to the winds. Christmas decorations, including the Bridgeport Christmas tree, were knocked over as well.

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West Virginia

Man dies in southern W.Va. mining incident

Published

18 hours ago

December 18, 2025

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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.

“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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West Virginia

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

Published

1 day ago

December 18, 2025

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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.

Biggest surprises

West Virginia University offensive lineman Donovan Haslam | Christopher Hall – West Virginia on SI

For this group, we’re keeping it all positive. These are players who rose above expectations and turned out to be pretty solid players.

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

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.

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.

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.