Climate change in West Virginia

For example, based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre’s climate model (HadCM2), a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols, by 2100 temperatures in West Virginia could increase by 3 °F (1.7 °C) in winter, spring, and summer (with a range of 1–6 °F, 0.6–3.3 °C) and 4 °F (2.2 °C) in fall (with a range of 2–7 °F, 1.1–3.9 °C).

Warming and other climate changes could expand the habitat and infectiousness of disease-carrying insects, thus increasing the potential for transmission of diseases such as malaria and dengue.

The topography of West Virginia is rugged, and many of the rivers in the state are influenced by winter snow accumulation and spring snowmelt.

Lower summer streamflows and warmer temperatures could affect water quality by concentrating pollutant levels.

This could exacerbate existing problems with acid drainage from coal mines, high concentrations of fecal coliform bacteria, and industrial pollution from the manufacturing plants along the floodplains of the Ohio and Kanawha rivers.

Most homes and businesses in West Virginia are built on flat, narrow valley floors and are susceptible to flooding.

More rain also could increase erosion and exacerbate pollution in runoff areas devoted to manufacturing, coal mining, and oil and gas extraction.

According to the Fifth National Climate Assessment published in 2023, "Appalachian states like Kentucky and West Virginia have seen devastating flooding from rainstorms".

[3] A 2018 report by FEMA on lessons learned suggests that this sort of rain event and flooding may occur more frequently than has previously been expected.

[3] In West Virginia, production agriculture is a $400 million annual industry, three-fourths of which comes from livestock, mainly cattle and poultry.

Forested areas could be increasingly dominated by pine and scrub oaks, replacing many of the eastern hardwoods common throughout West Virginia.

These areas contain some of the last remaining stands of red spruce, which are seriously threatened by acid rain and could be further stressed by changing climate.