River Drainage
     Downhill. From the sky the topography of West Virginia looks as if a giant hand crinkled the land into hills and mountains. Water going downhill feeds streams, small and large. Thick, lush vegetation, nurtured by abundant moisture, covers the hillsides. By necessity, most people live in valleys or hollows where the flat land is available.

     When spring or summer storms arrive, rural West Virginians are on the alert. Hills and mountains act as narrow sluices, funneling rainwater into narrow, angry creeks which in minutes can produce flash floods. Like a giant bulldozer water pushes aside whatever is in its path. Seemingly every spring and summer, and fall if hurricane season blows storms westward, FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) camps out in rural West Virginia.  

      Drainage. Two different types of river systems exist in West Virginia, separated by an imaginary line, from Keyser in the north to Bluefield in the south, called the Allegheny Front or Appalachian Divide.

      On the east side, principal rivers flow parallel to each other between long, narrow mountain ranges, in a northeast-southwest direction.  Their tributaries, which are short and steeply flowing, intersect rivers at nearly right angles forming a trellis or grid pattern, called trellis drainage.  These waters flow toward the Atlantic Ocean. The eastern panhandle of West Virginia is within the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

      On the west side, the river-tributary pattern resembles a plant leaf, with intersections at acute angles, like a dendrite, often producing a haphazard design, called dendritic drainage. These waters flow toward the Ohio River.

     The drainage patterns are so extensive that there are no natural lakes or sizeable undrained areas in West Virginia, except for the Cranberry Glades which slowly are draining into the Cranberry River.

      Weather. The nature of West Virginia's weather, with its relatively high amount of precipitation, accounts for the excellent drainage. Annual precipitation ranges from 60 inches in the mountains to 30-40 inches in the eastern panhandle.  The state's temperature range has its extremes in small portions of the state, but by and large temperatures are considered temperate or moderate.

     Here tropical winds and polar winds meet, resulting in fronts which shift from day to day with accompanying differences in precipitation and temperature.  Winds generally are from the west, often the southwest. The rugged terrain, including the river valleys, can create microclimates with substantial variation within the same county.  To access information from the Global Hydrology and Climate Center concerning the Ohio River basin including West Virginia: http://wwwghcc.msfc.nasa.gov/...
Last updated on Thursday, July 26, 2001