Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Strong Storms Possible Late Wednesday Night into Thursday

A potent storm system is moving across the southeastern US today and could bring strong storms to the Carolinas late tonight and tomorrow. Early this morning severe storms have been marching across Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. The rain and storms will be slow to move into our part of North Carolina leaving most of the daytime hours Wednesday with not much more than a few sprinkles or light showers.

Widespread rain will likely move into central and eastern North Carolina tonight. A few strong storms will be possible at that time. The threat for severe weather should mainly start around 10pm for the Triangle and Sandhills and continue through the overnight hours. The threat should come more toward early morning for coastal North Carolina but could start before daybreak. There is a slight chance that a few overnight storms may produce an isolated tornado. This is especially dangerous because of the overnight timing. Many people will be asleep and will not be aware of any warnings. Be sure to have a NOAA Weather Radio in standby mode tonight to alert you to any warnings in your area. Over 80% of tornado deaths in North Carolina occur at night.

Showers and storms will continue off and on through the day Thursday. The severe threat will come more from damaging wind gusts from any strong storms during the daytime. The rain and storms should come to an end by late afternoon and evening. Rainfall amounts should range between 1 and 2 inches across much of our area.

Stay tuned to News 14 Carolina for updates. We'll be here around the clock for the latest information through the day and night.

Lee Ringer
News 14 Carolina Meteorologist
www.facebook.com/LeeRingerNews14
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1 comment:

Nan Bush said...

What can you say about the lightning show that went all yesterday evening, from 8-ish on to midnight or later? I sure hope you saw it! It was like a cross between a gigantic commercial light show and the Northern Lights, all happening behind the towering thunderhead clouds--three or four of what I'll describe as "source centers," flashing usually one at a time but close together. These were huge energy displays. lighting the clouds from behind, sometimes with a rim of lightning around the perimeter of the cloud. And it went on without pause for hours! I've never seen anything like it--no thunder, like heat lightning, but exponentially bigger than any heat lightning I've ever seen. As you can tell, words don't do it.