Tropical Storm Laura could spawn weak tornadoes in Charlotte area. Here’s the latest.
Tropical Storm Laura could spawn weak tornadoes in the Charlotte region on Saturday, even though the storm is expected to be a tropical depression at that point, National Weather Service meteorologists said Thursday.
At 3 p.m. Thursday, the former hurricane packed 50 mph winds about 80 miles northeast of Shreveport, La., according to the National Hurricane Center. Damaging winds and flooding rainfall were spreading inland over central and northern parts of the state. Earlier Thursday, Laura had come ashore as a Category 4 hurricane with 150 mph winds, the Hurricane Center said.
“Western North Carolina could experience heavy rain and strong wind gusts beginning Friday night,” according to an NWS hazardous weather outlook bulletin early Thursday. “Damaging winds and possibly even tornadoes are possible Saturday as the storm passes north of the area.”
Only an inch of rain is expected Saturday in the Charlotte region from Laura.
But windy conditions combined with instability in the air from moisture and warm temperatures could be conducive “for a weak tornado or two,” said meteorologist Steve Wilkinson of the NWS office in Greer, S.C.
That forecast also covers the N.C. foothills, parts of the S.C. and N.C. mountains and upstate South Carolina, Wilkinson said.
Saturday afternoon concerns
Laura is expected to weaken to a tropical depression entering the Ohio Valley Friday night and then track toward the Mid-Atlantic coast, according to the NWS alert. That’s when the severe weather could strike the Charlotte area, Wilkinson said.
The greatest threat of severe weather in the Charlotte area is Saturday afternoon, Wilkinson said. It was too early on Thursday to pinpoint where tornadoes are most likely to form in the region, he said.
“But the NWS will be monitoring for that closely,” Wilkinson said.
Charlotte has a 60% chance of showers and thunderstorms before noon Saturday and continuing until about 3 p.m., according to the latest NWS forecast late Thursday morning.
Wilkinson said it’s too early to predict maximum wind gusts from Laura in Charlotte, but forecasters don’t expect the winds to be intense enough to cause widespread outages.
Counties in the southwestern corner of North Carolina could see as much as 4 inches of rain and are at higher risk of flash flooding, the National Hurricane Center said.
While remnants of other hurricanes have reached Charlotte over the decades, Hugo in 1989 was the last full hurricane to strike the city, Wilkinson said.
This story was originally published August 27, 2020 at 11:55 AM.