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The Democratic National Convention visitors didn’t take the bad weather with them when they left town Friday, as it turns out.
But we’ll only have to endure one more day of stormy conditions before the Charlotte region gets a real taste of autumn, forecasters say. High temperatures near 80 degrees and sunny skies are predicted for late this weekend into next week.
First, however, will be the stormy weather. Thunderstorms, some of them possibly becoming strong to severe, are possible Saturday afternoon and early evening in the Piedmont as a rather potent cold front crosses the region. The storms will be part of a large outbreak of severe weather that is expected to be especially bad in the Mid-Atlantic region.
“There’s still some uncertainty in the forecast, but the possibility is there for some strong thunderstorms later Saturday afternoon,” Jake Wimberley, of the National Weather Service office in Greer, S.C., said Friday evening.
Wimberley said meteorologists think thunderstorms will develop earlier Saturday in the mountains, then intensify as they enter the Piedmont.
“Most of the thunderstorm activity will be in the Piedmont, especially along and east of the Interstate 77 corridor,” he said. The storms could intensify even more as they move eastward into the Sandhills on Saturday evening.
Damaging wind gusts and hail will be the big threats, meteorologists say.
Saturday’s stormy weather will mark an end to a week that included heat, very high humidity, and frequent storms. More than 2 inches of rain fell during the week at Charlotte Douglas International Airport -- compared to an average of about 2/3 of an inch for the first week of September. The storms impacted several events during the Democratic National Convention.
High temperatures will climb into the upper 80s Saturday, Wimberley says.
But a big change will follow the front. Cooler and somewhat less-humid air will spread into the Carolinas on Sunday. High temperatures will only reach 80 in Charlotte, and by Monday morning, lows are forecast to be in the upper 50s. The pleasant weather -- minus any rain -- is predicted to continue into the middle of next week.
