‘Keeping our fingers crossed.’ How Tropical Storm Elsa will impact the Charlotte area.
Tropical Storm Elsa could still “pose a minor threat” to the Charlotte area, although most of the bad winds and rains are expected to veer more to the east and toward the coast, National Weather Service meteorologists said Tuesday.
“Limited heavy rain is possible across the southeast fringe of our forecast area, but the threat has actually dropped just a bit since the last update,” the NWS office in Greer, S.C., said on Twitter at 11 a.m. Tuesday.
“We’re keeping our fingers crossed that the (weather prediction) guidance will continue that way,” NWS meteorologist Mike Rehnberg told The Charlotte Observer at 1 p.m. Tuesday.
Charlotte could see light rain from the outer bands of Elsa beginning a couple of hours after sunrise on Wednesday, Rehnberg said. “But the brunt of it will be Wednesday night into early Thursday,” he said.
On Wednesday, the FAA warned of possible flight delays at Charlotte Douglas International Airport due to Elsa.
Other major airports, including in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles should also anticipate delays, the FAA said.
Flight delays
At CLT, 111 incoming and outgoing flights had been delayed by 4:45 p.m. Wednesday, including a total of 81 on American Airlines and its subsidiary, PSA Airlines, according to the flight-tracking site FlightAware.com. It wasn’t immediately known how many of the delays were due to the storm.
Outer bands of rain from the remnants of Tropical Storm Elsa should arrive in the Charlotte area on Thursday morning and stick around throughout the day, a National Weather Service meteorologist said Wednesday.
Charlotte could see up to 2 inches of rain before Elsa moves from the region by mid- to late afternoon on Thursday, meteorologist Chris Horne of the NWS office in Greer, S.C., told The Charlotte Observer.
Bouts of heavy rain are expected to form, dissipate and re-form along the Interstate 77 corridor over eight or nine hours, according to Horne. Showers could form and re-form anywhere east or west of the interstate, including in Mecklenburg and surrounding counties, he said.
The good news: Elsa’s eye is expected to be well to the east of the Charlotte region, so no tropical storm-force winds are expected in the metro area and nearby counties, including Upstate South Carolina, Horne said.
Tracking Elsa
At 2 p.m. Wednesday, Elsa was about 105 miles west of Jacksonville, Fla., and weakening, according to the National Hurricane Center. Winds fell to 50 mph, from 65 mph several hours earlier.
The storm could dump up to 6 inches of rain across southeast Georgia and South Carolina’s Lowcountry, and up to 5 inches along parts of the North Carolina coast, hurricane center officials said in a bulletin at 8 a.m. Wednesday.
Charlotte has an 80% chance of rain and thunderstorms on Thursday, according to the NWS forecast at noon Wednesday. The storm will lower Thursday’s expected high to 79 degrees, before highs are forecast to rise again to 90 on Friday, 91 Saturday and 90 on Sunday.
Tornado risk
On Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center warned of possible tornadoes on Wednesday across north Florida, southeast Georgia and South Carolina’s Lowcountry .
“The tornado threat should shift to the eastern Carolinas and far southeast Virginia on Thursday,” according to a hurricane center bulletin Tuesday morning.
The Charlotte area should be OK regarding the threat of tornadoes, according to Rehnberg. That’s because the greatest threat of tornadoes lies in the “front right quadrant” of storms. In Elsa’s case, that would be well to the east of the Charlotte region, he said.
A tropical storm watch was issued for the Georgia coast and parts of the S.C. coast, “where tropical storm conditions are possible late Wednesday and early Thursday,” according to the hurricane center.
This story was originally published July 6, 2021 at 2:17 PM.