‘Egg-sized hail’ headed to North Carolina, forecasters say. Here’s the latest

A violent line of thunderstorms is headed for North Carolina and it may include falling chunks of ice big enough to cause injuries, weather experts say.

The worst of the weather will reach mountain counties late Thursday, May 8, into Friday morning, and will extend as far east as the Charlotte area, the National Weather Service says. Included in the forecast are gusts near 35 mph and even horizontal rain.

“Scattered thunderstorms are expected to develop by late this afternoon and continue into this evening. A few of these storms will become strong to severe with a risk of quarter-sized to egg-sized hail and damaging winds,” NWS officials said.

The storms are associated with a cold front that will stall over the Southeast into early next week, “keeping unsettled weather around for days,” officials say.

Conditions appear to be perfect for “a greater than usual hail threat,” with chunks larger than 2 inches in diameter, the NWS wrote in a forecast discussion Thursday, May 8.

Hail is created when updrafts from growing storms “push water droplets into a region of the atmosphere which is below the freezing temperature,” experts say.

“These water droplets collide with other droplets just before freezing, which is why some hailstones can grow to several inches in diameter. The stronger the updraft associated with a thunderstorm the larger the hail associated with the storm will be,” officials say.

“It is not difficult to imagine the damage or injuries which can be caused by hail when you consider that hail may fall at speeds greater than 100 mph.”

This story was originally published May 8, 2025 at 9:33 AM.