Thousands without power Saturday night as storms pummel Charlotte area again
About 7,000 Duke Energy customers in southern Mecklenburg County lost power Saturday night after severe storms raced through the Charlotte area.
About 3,000 customers off East Independence Boulevard and Pineville-Matthews Road (N.C .51) were without electricity at 7 p.m., according to the Duke Energy outage map.
Crews expected to restore power by 10 p.m., the map showed.
At Charlotte Douglas International Airport, 383 flights were delayed by 8 p.m. Saturday, including 212 departures, or 30% of flights, and 171 landings, or 24%, tracking site Flight Aware.com reported.
Storms with 60-mph gusts and quarter-sized hail knocked out power to about 14,000 Charlotte-area customers Thursday night. NWS forecasters warned at the time that more bad weather also could develop Saturday night.
The only good news?
Temperatures are expected to significantly cool Sunday, with highs 8 degrees to 12 degrees below normal, according to the NWS office in Greer, S.C.
“Unfortunately, it will feel muggy, with dew points near 70 and scattered showers,” NWS meteorologists said on Twitter. “Temps rebound to near normal by Tuesday but NO heat waves through next week.”
Charlotte has a 50% chance of showers on Sunday and a 40% chance Sunday night, before skies finally start begin to clear, according to the NWS Charlotte forecast at 7 p.m. Saturday.
Sunday’s high is expected to plummet to 76 degrees, the NWS forecast showed. Highs are then predicted to shoot back up to 81 Monday, 89 Tuesday, 91 Wednesday, 85 Thursday and Friday and 86 Saturday, according to the NWS forecast.
This story was originally published July 9, 2022 at 8:07 PM.