Tropical Storm Debby could bring heavy rain to much of NC this week. Here’s when and where.
Update: North Carolina will see the heaviest rains from Debby all day Thursday. Click here for the latest. Debby, which was first categorized as a hurricane, weakened to a tropical storm around 11 a.m. Monday.
Tropical Storm Debby, which made its first landfall in Florida on Monday morning, now begins a slow, circuitous path through the Southeast that’s expected to bring historic rainfall amounts to Georgia and South Carolina and the risk of flash flooding to much of North Carolina through Saturday.
What will Debby do next?
Debby will move offshore from Georgia or South Carolina into the Atlantic on Thursday morning, forecasters say, before making landfall again in South Carolina sometime Friday. From there it’s expected to move north into North Carolina, still a tropical storm.
How much rain could Debby bring?
Through Saturday morning, the storm is expected to drop 10 to 20 inches of rain — with local amounts of up to 30 inches — in southeast Georgia, South Carolina’s coastal plain and southeast North Carolina.
Forecasters for the National Hurricane Center said Monday, “This potentially historic rainfall will likely result in areas of catastrophic flooding.”
All but extreme Western North Carolina is expected to see rainfall from the storm, in amounts of 1 to 4 inches west of the Piedmont to as much as 16 inches in the area of southeastern N.C. that includes Wilmington, Jacksonville and Lumberton.
Along the coast, dangerous storm surge and wind impacts are expected from Florida all the way to North Carolina through midweek.
The forecast for Raleigh and the Triangle
As of Monday morning, forecasters had central North Carolina, including Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill, within a broad area of the state with at least a 15% chance of flash flooding as a result of Debby’s rain.
The Triangle is expected to get up to 8 inches of rain from the storm, mostly during the period from Wednesday through Saturday morning, with the heaviest rain expected Thursday and Friday.
By Sunday, mostly sunny skies are expected and the rain chance drops to 30%.
This story was originally published August 5, 2024 at 10:08 AM with the headline "Tropical Storm Debby could bring heavy rain to much of NC this week. Here’s when and where.."
