Icy winter storm leaves 2,000 without power in Mecklenburg County on Saturday
An icy overnight winter storm left more than 2,000 Duke Energy customers in Mecklenburg County without power on Saturday morning.
Conditions were far worse in the Greensboro area, where 66,000 remained without power at 8:30 a.m., according to the Duke Energy outage map. Another 23,000 were without power along the Interstate 85 corridor northeast of Durham toward Virginia, according to the map.
By 1 p.m. Saturday, power had been restored in Mecklenburg County to all but 131 customers, the map showed. The company expected to restore electricity to the remainder by 3:15 p.m.
Just after 4:30 a.m. Saturday, the National Weather Service issued a special weather statement warning of the impending arrival of a light freezing rain in Charlotte, other parts of Mecklenburg County and in Cabarrus, Union, Gaston and Lincoln counties.
The freezing rain produced an icy glaze on roads, bridges and sidewalks, according to the NWS.
Only rain had been forecast in Charlotte, but the number of outages showed freezing conditions arrived there, too, NWS meteorologist Mike Rehnberg told The Charlotte Observer at 8:30 a.m. Saturday.
Charlotte had a 100% chance of rain on Saturday, when a high of only 37 degrees is expected, NWS forecasters said Friday.
Sunday in Charlotte is expected to be much the same, with a 70% chance of rain and a forecast high of 37 degrees.
On Presidents Day, the chance of showers falls to 50%, while the forecast high climbs begrudgingly to 47 degrees.
But showers are expected to again strengthen in Charlotte on Monday night and stick around through at least Thursday, according to the NWS.
Thursday is when another bout of severe weather, this one in the form of thunderstorms, could barrel into the Charlotte region from the Midwest, NWS meteorologist Mike Rehnberg told The Charlotte Observer on Friday.
“It’s definitely a possibility right now,” he said.
This story was originally published February 12, 2021 at 12:20 PM.