Weather News

Storms knock out power to 5,000 in south Charlotte, Lake Norman

Storms knocked out power to this Lake Norman traffic light near Interstate 77 Brawley School Road exit 35 on Thursday morning.
Storms knocked out power to this Lake Norman traffic light near Interstate 77 Brawley School Road exit 35 on Thursday morning. Street View image from January 2026. © 2026 Google

Storms in the Charlotte region with a cold front left at least 5,000 Duke Energy customers in south Charlotte, Lake Norman and elsewhere without power on Thursday, the company’s outage map showed.

Mecklenburg County customers could be without power until 7:30 p.m. and Lake Norman customers until 2 p.m., according to the map.

Outages included at least 1,000 on Providence Road just north of Ballantyne Commons Parkway and Interstate 485 in south Charlotte.

Another 1,000 lost electricity along the Interstate 77 corridor from Brawley School Road exit 35 to N.C. 150 exit 36 in Mooresville, according to the map. Outages have been reported mostly in the Williamson Road area.

Duke reported 575 customers without power in Union County near Monroe.

Williamson’s Chapel United Methodist Church at Brawley School and Williamson roads lost power, and a traffic signal was out at Brawley School Road and Rolling Hill Road near exit 35, an Observer reporter saw.

At 9:35 a.m., National Weather Service meteorologists issued an alert on social media about “ongoing severe thunderstorm warnings in the Charlotte Metro and accumulating snow in the North Carolina Mountains.”

The NWS said 50-mph winds were possible until 10:45 a.m. in Concord, Indian Trail and Monroe.

The storms followed a streak of hot weather that saw Charlotte set two daily high temperature records this week.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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This story was originally published March 12, 2026 at 10:43 AM.

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Joe Marusak
The Charlotte Observer
Joe Marusak has been a reporter for The Charlotte Observer since 1989 covering the people, municipalities and major news events of the region, and was a news bureau editor for the paper. He currently reports on breaking news. Support my work with a digital subscription
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