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• The Weather

  … weaken, or trigger and strengthen, various weather elements. Some of the heaviest … continent makes it susceptible to changeable weather, especially from late autumn into … radar system operated by the National Weather Service can estimate rainfall anywhere …

• Climate

  … 97 inches to less than ten inches. A National Weather Service cooperative station located three miles southeast of Parsons … and extreme Eastern Panhandle. Adding to the discomfort level, weather patterns can become stagnant during the summer, resulting in …

• Forest Fires

  … and bushes while leaving larger trees standing. They ‘‘crown,’’ or reach the tops of mature trees, only during extremely severe fire weather. Such hot fires kill large trees outright. More often, West Virginia forest fires scorch the bark at the base of …

• Elk River

  … waterfalls, including a six-mile stretch in "Randolph County":http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/8 where, in dry weather, the river sinks underground. According to legend, underground Elk was formed in 1896 when a hole opened in the stream …

• Appalachian Mountains

  … lying to the west of the Allegheny Mountains, with another fifth within the Ridge and Valley. West Virginia’s climate and "weather":http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/939 are affected by the lay of the land, with an average elevation of 1, …

• Derecho of 2012

  … with a band of rapidly moving storms. An American scientist first used the Spanish term in 1888 to describe this kind of weather event, but most West Virginians were unfamiliar with it until the 2012 derecho came and went. The storm formed in Illinois …

• Snowstorm of October 2012

  … , McDowell, Mingo, Logan, Boone, Lincoln, Wayne, Putnam, Kanawha, Clay, Braxton, and Barbour counties. At the National Weather Service office, less than five miles south of Charleston, the snow depth reached nine inches. Meanwhile, downtown Charleston had …

• Snowstorm of January 1978

  … West Virginia. As a result, forecasters at the National Weather Service thought the snow would eventually mix with sleet … center was nearing the coast of North Carolina. National Weather Service personnel at "Charleston":http://www.wvencyclopedia …

• Flood of 2016

  … up Clay, Nicholas, Webster and Greenbrier counties on June 21, 2016, saturating the ground and setting the stage for what the National Weather Service would describe as a “thousand year” flood two days later. During the predawn hours of June 23, a pre- …

• Flood of 1916

  … org/articles/1100 newspaper reported the disastrous weather as “a cloudburst of immense volume” … of lightning.” Predictions had been for cooler weather and showers that day. Coal … cream can used by an unofficial weather observer at Kayford. It tallied the …

• Randolph County

  … and corporate aircraft. An automated flight service station operated by the U.S. government at the airport provides updates on weather and flight data for aircraft entering into the air space of West Virginia. "Davis & Elkins College": …

• Greenwood Cemetery

  … cemetery is the 1983 Greenwood Chapel which was added to a 1909 receiving vault and is used for services during inclement weather. During the past century, numerous bodies have been re-interred at Greenwood when other cemeteries were taken by highways and …

• Agriculture

  The first settlers in West Virginia were adventurous individuals and families seeking a new life in a new land. Little was understood of elevations and mean rainfall, but the cool mountains and fertile valleys attracted a variety of hardy pioneers. These …

• Sandy Creek Expedition

  … Ingles, husband of Mary Draper Ingles, was among them. The expedition was doomed almost from the beginning due to harsh weather, swollen streams and rivers, and lack of provisions. They reached the headwaters of the Big Sandy River on February 28, and …

• Alderson Broaddus University

  … 1980 at a cost of $2 million. The 1990s were another time of fundamental change for the institution. Having weathered wars, depressions, and social upheavals, Alderson-Broaddus now confronted sweeping social and economic changes. During this time the …

• Allegheny Mountains

  The Allegheny Mountains form a high region running from the Elk (4,345 feet) and "Gauley":http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/2283 (4,571 feet) mountains in "Pocahontas":http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/1876 and "Randolph …

• Shanghai Parade

  … riders, antique cars, farm equipment, and other elements of conventional parades. Participation and attendance vary with the weather, with some years seeing several dozen entries and hundreds of spectators. Once featuring revelers in scary disguise who …

• Helvetia

  … .org/articles/166 and cheese making with timber and mill work to create a sustainable local economy. Their self-sufficient farms weathered the world wars and even the Depression without great hardship. The Swiss-German language fell out of use as the …

• Shinnston Tornado

  … firefighters, nurses, doctors, and common citizens. The Shinnston Tornado was part of a broader outbreak of tornadoes and violent weather in the northern Appalachian region during the period of June 22-23, 1944. Tornadoes were reported in Pennsylvania, …

• Beckley

  … "mechanization":http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/1364 led to the loss of thousands of mining jobs. Beckley weathered the subsequent economic downturn more successfully than smaller communities. The city’s location at the junction of two …

• Hog Butchering

  … was an important annual ritual in the West Virginia countryside. Fat hogs were butchered as soon as the cooler weather permitted, usually around Thanksgiving. Butchering day started before daylight with heating the water in iron kettles over an outside …

• Hopemont Sanitarium (now Hospital)

  … ://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/1879, Pocahontas County, in 1917. The living quarters at Hopemont had long porches, exposed to the weather. The theory was that patients benefited from fresh air year-round, though superintendent E. E. Clovis said it was …

• Snowshoe Mountain Resort

  … , Brigham invested in the Cheat Mountain location which receives an average annual snowfall of 200 inches. The area’s unusually cold weather makes it the most southerly home of snowshoe hares, which gave the resort its name. It also allows Snowshoe the …

• Spruce Knob

  … hard conglomerate rock is resistant to erosive weathering. Although glaciers did not reach West … , and polygons, which are associated with cold weather freeze-thaw cycles, can still be … . In some areas on Spruce Knob the weather is so harsh that trees grow …

• Bluefield

  Bluefield, incorporated in 1889, embodied the rapid growth of the southern West Virginia ‘‘smokeless’’ coalfields. Located in a broad valley between the headwaters of the "Bluestone":http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/577 and "East" …