Drought — Southeast Raleigh, West Virginia

2025-09-01 to 2025-09-30 · Southeast Raleigh, West Virginia

Wider weather episode

Fairly dry conditions were observed from late August into September, which resulted in at least abnormally dry conditions (D0) across the majority of the area. By the beginning of September, a stripe of moderate drought (D1) had developed across the middle of the state from the northeast mountains down across the central part of the state and over to the southwestern counties along the Ohio, Big Sandy, and Tug Fork Rivers. While most of the area remained in D0 or D1, portions of Barbour, Pocahontas, Randolph, Upshur, and Webster Counties experienced a further degradation to severe drought (D2) in the first week of the month.

A prolonged period of dry weather continued into the second week of the month, prompting at least D1 conditions for all except far southwestern West Virginia. Meanwhile, D2 spread across central, northeast and northwest West Virginia to include parts of Barbour, Braxton, Clay, Doddridge, Jackson, Kanawha, Lewis, Nicholas, Pleasants, Pocahontas, Putnam, Randolph, Roane, Tyler, and Upshur Counties. A pocket of extreme drought (D3) also formed in portions of Barbour, Braxton, Nicholas, Pocahontas, Randolph, Upshur, and Webster counties.

During the third week of the month, over 100 reports of mainly agricultural impacts prompted slight expansions of both D2 and D3 conditions, while D1 and D0 remained unchanged.

Rounds of rain and thunderstorms finally began to bring more substantial precipitation to the area late in the month, which resulted in one to two category improvements across parts of western and southern West Virginia. Improvement to D0 or better occurred in Cabell, northern Calhoun, southern Doddridge, northwest Gilmer, Harrison, northern Jackson, southern Lincoln, western Logan, Mason, western Mingo, southern Pleasants, Ritchie, northern Roane, Wayne, Wirt, and Wood. Improvement to D1 occurred in Putnam and southern Jackson. Meanwhile, lesser rain amounts to the north and east perpetuated D1 to D3 conditions across parts of central and eastern West Virginia, with small southward expansions of D1 and D2 even occurring along the mountains. A pocket of D1 to D2 also persisted in northern Doddridge, northern Pleasants, and Tyler. The worst of the drought (D3) continued to span parts of Braxton, Clay, Lewis, Nicholas, Randolph, Pocahontas, Upshur, and Webster Counties through the end of the month.

Drought-related impacts included stressed orchards, dry grasses, reduced crop yield, the necessity of supplemental feed, and very low water levels in creeks, streams, and small rivers. A midge-transmitted disease called Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD) also significantly impacted deer populations across western West Virginia. Although EHD does occur annually, drought conditions can trigger outbreaks that do not typically subside until after the first frost. By the end of September, at least 1,700 deer fatalities in West Virginia were attributed to EHD.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1289919. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.