Mon Valley hit by heavy rain, strong winds

Another round of storms is in the forecast for this afternoon.

Rostraver Township Fire Department responded to 20 calls for assistance as severe storms rolled through the area early Saturday afternoon and again in the evening.

By 5 p.m., the department had already received more than a dozen calls for help with downed trees, wires and flooding.

Early in the day, damage was reported in the Fellsburg and Lenity school areas. Crews also responded to an automatic fire alarm call at Napa Auto Parts on Finley Road.

The number of calls jumped again Saturday night as a second round of storms moved through.

Firefighters again helped with downed trees, wires and reports of flooding from Fellsburg to Todd Manor.

No injuries were reported in any of the incidents.

Charleroi Volunteer Fire Department also stayed busy, responding to 17 emergency calls Friday and Saturday. On Friday, a transformer and pole went down in the Chamber Plaza lot, causing a widespread outage. First responders were called to several locations for reports of smoke in structures because of the power surge.

Storms and rain had been hit and miss since Friday, with most of the severe weather taking place between noon and 8 p.m. Saturday when a severe thunderstorm watch was in effect.

The storms brought damaging wind gusts, hail up to the size of a quarter and frequent lightning.

Without rain or thunder, lightning filled the sky Saturday evening, with many area residents posting videos of the sky flashing like a strobe light from several areas of the Mon Valley including Monongahela, Brownsville, Belle Vernon and Forward Township.

The severe storm watch ended about 8 p.m.

Because of the heavy rainfall — about 1 to 2 inches per hour — flooding of roads and small streams became a problem in some areas, but there were no reports of extreme flooding in the Mon Valley.

Sunday saw partly scattered showers, but stayed much drier than Saturday.

Storms are expected to roll back into the region today with rain and storms forecast to be at their heaviest between 2 and 8 p.m.

Strong winds, heavy rain and localized flooding as a result of heavy precipitation are expected.

Weather is projected to be calmer in time for Fourth of July, with the region entering a dry spell Tuesday that will carry through the weekend.