Nasty weather could be headed to the Charlotte area. What you should know.
Charlotte could be in for a nasty turn in the weather on Thursday, at least compared with the sunshine and moderate winds of recent days.
Charlotte has a 90% chance of showers returning Thursday, with gusts up to 32 mph, according to the National Weather Service forecast at 5 p.m. Wednesday.
Those winds aren’t strong enough to topple trees onto power lines, unless they’re aging trees with weak roots, meteorologist Patrick Moore of the NWS office in Greer, S.C., told The Charlotte Observer.
“Sometimes trees just give up,” he said.
In a hazardous weather outlook bulletin Wednesday afternoon, NWS meteorologists said “a couple of rounds of scattered thunderstorms will cross the region from the west ahead of an approaching cold front on Thursday.
“Locally heavy rainfall and strong winds will be possible with any of these thunderstorms,” according to the alert.
The greatest risk is with severe thunderstorms just after sunrise Thursday, Moore said, but the risk was only “marginal” as of Tuesday night.
“It’s still up in the air” regarding the potential for severe thunderstorms, he said.
Making such a threat more unlikely is the cold front that’s expected to cross the region overnight Wednesday into Thursday, Moore said.
The weather system isn’t expected to be unstable, unlike the one on March 23, when the NWS confirmed two tornadoes in Pickens County, S.C., and one in Alexander County, according to Moore.
Widespread rain is expected ahead of this week’s front, with winds predicted to remain “breezy” in the area through Thursday afternoon, according to the NWS.
About an inch of rain could fall in Charlotte on Thursday, which is not enough to produce flooding, Moore said.
Charlotte expected some rain to creep in on Wednesday, when “areas of drizzle” are possible after 10 a.m., the NWS forecast showed Tuesday night. Most areas were mainly sunny at 5 p.m. Wednesday.
The high hovered around 72 degrees at 5 p.m. Wednesday, 12 degrees higher than 24 hours earlier, according to the NWS. Despite the expected rain, Thursday’s high could reach 73 degrees, forecasters said. Highs are expected to drop to 69 Friday and 66 Saturday, under mostly sunny skies both days, according to the NWS.
Mostly sunny skies are expected through Tuesday afternoon, before showers are likely to return Tuesday night and Wednesday, NWS meteorologists said.
The NWS predicts highs of 71 Sunday, 73 Monday and 76 Tuesday and Wednesday.
The NWS issued a high wind warning for parts of the N.C. mountains until 11 a.m. Thursday, “with gusts up to 70 mph expected.“
This story was originally published March 30, 2022 at 6:15 AM.