Severe Charlotte weather could produce tornado, NWS says
A severe overnight weather system knocked out power to at least 1,000 Duke Energy customers in southern Mecklenburg County on Sunday.
And the Charlotte area faces another round of nasty storms Sunday afternoon with possibly damaging winds and a tornado, National Weather Service meteorologists said in hazardous weather outlook bulletins.
The risk will be greatest along and east of Interstate 77, including Mecklenburg, Cabarrus and Union counties, according to an NWS severe weather outlook map on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
“Widespread showers and scattered thunderstorms will cross the region today ahead of a cold front,” NWS forecasters in the Greer, South Carolina, office said in a bulletin early Sunday.
“Locally heavy rainfall and cloud-to-ground lightning will be the main threats, but isolated damaging wind gusts or a brief tornado cannot be ruled out,” according to the bulletin.
The NWS alert included Mecklenburg and surrounding counties, Upstate South Carolina and the North Carolina Piedmont, foothills and mountains.
Tornado warnings were issued for the Raleigh area Sunday afternoon, The New & Observer reported.
A tornado watch remains until 8 p.m. for Burlington, Raleigh, Fayetteville, Greenville and all other areas of central and eastern North Carolina, the NWS Raleigh office said on Twitter.
Late Saturday afternoon, severe storms were still 250 miles west of the NC mountains in Tennessee. A tornado hit just north of downtown Nashville, multiple videos showed.
Storms killed six people in Tennessee, three in Clarksville and three in Nashville, The New York Times reported. At least 60 people were hurt, according to the newspaper.
Outages in Mecklenburg fell to 675 by 10 a.m. Sunday, according to the Duke Energy outage map. Power was expected to be restored by 1:15 p.m., the map showed.
At 10 a.m. Sunday, a light rain was falling at Charlotte’s airport, where the temperature was 63 degrees and winds were a calm 5 mph, according to the NWS Charlotte forecast page.
Charlotte has a 90% chance of showers and patchy fog throughout the day, the forecast showed.
Skies should finally turn sunny on Monday and remain clear through at least Saturday, the forecast showed.
Highs are predicted to drop from 65 degrees on Sunday to 49 degrees on Monday. Highs should then inch up to 52 on Tuesday and 57 on Wednesday. Highs of 50 and 53 are forecast Thursday and Friday, and 56 on Saturday.
Snow, fierce winds in mountains
In the North Carolina mountains, Avery, Mitchell and Yancey counties are under a winter weather advisory from 6 p.m. Sunday to noon Monday.
Parts of the counties could see up to 4 inches of snow and 45-mph winds, according to the alert
”Plan on slippery road conditions,” NWS meteorologists said in the advisory. “The hazardous conditions could impact the morning commute. Gusty winds could bring down tree branches.”
Patchy “black ice” could form in the mountains late Sunday and early Monday as temperatures plummet into the 20s, NWS meteorologists said in the alert.
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians canceled Saturday’s annual Christmas parade on the Qualla Boundary east of Asheville due to low attendance and the expected severe weather.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
This story was originally published December 9, 2023 at 9:54 AM.