McDowell County faces wet weekend as rain and drought coexist

Rain threatened holiday plans across McDowell County, from cookouts and church gatherings to travel on flood-prone roads and the weekend traffic small businesses in Welch count on, even as parts of the county had already picked up some of the heaviest rain in the region and still sat in the highest level of drought. The contrast mattered because a soaking storm can turn steep roads slick and send runoff into hollows without ending the deeper dry spell beneath the surface.

WOAY-TV’s weekend outlook said a cool front had already pushed through earlier in the week, and a series of disturbances moving from southwest to northeast across the Ohio Valley kept showers in the forecast. Saturday was expected to bring fewer showers than the previous couple of days, but residents still faced a good chance of rain. By Sunday, temperatures were expected to climb into the mid to upper 70s as a warm front lifted north, and the chance of showers and thunder was set to rise again as another cool front approached from the northwest. Memorial Day itself carried an elevated rain chance because a weak front was expected to stall over the area.

The National Weather Service office in Charleston had already warned on May 20 that a strong thunderstorm would hit southeastern McDowell County through 9:30 p.m., with radar-estimated wind gusts up to 40 mph and nickel-size hail. Communities named in that warning included Gary, War, Northfork, Keystone, Anawalt, Kimball, Maybeury, Elbert, Cucumber and Jenkinjones. By May 27, the same office was still cautioning that heavier rain could bring flash flooding in places that had already taken on heavy rain, along with damaging winds, heavy downpours and some hail.

The drought backdrop remained important, even with rain in the forecast. Drought.gov said McDowell County’s recent climate stats still showed the 57th driest February on record and the 44th driest January-February stretch in 2026. The county page listed 0 people affected by drought, but statewide conditions were still strained, with 1.5 million West Virginia residents in areas of drought as of May 12 and the state logging a notably dry April. For McDowell County, the wet weekend brought some relief, but it also underscored a familiar problem: rain, drought and flood risk can all show up at once.