Flood advisory issued for Triangle, several eastern NC counties under tornado watch
The National Weather Service issued a flood advisory for several Triangle counties Saturday morning.
Thunderstorms passing through central North Carolina have brought heavy rain to the region, dropping nearly an inch of rain by 8 a.m. Saturday, the weather service said. Minor flooding has begun or is expected to begin shortly in Wake, Durham, Orange, Johnston, Chatham, Harnett, Granville, Franklin, Lee and Nash counties.
The advisory is in effect until 10:30 a.m. Additional rainfall of a half-inch is expected throughout the Triangle. The NWS warned of flooding particularly in low-lying locations or areas with poor drainage.
As of 9 a.m., the storm has left thousands without power in the Triangle, according to a Duke Energy outage map.
More than 2,000 customers had lost power closer to North Carolina Central University in Durham, while close to 2,000 were without power in Cary, with hundreds more without power scattered throughout Apex and closer to Raleigh. Just south of Knightdale, nearly 1,000 people have lost power.
As a cold front continued to move east, strong wind gusts between 35 and 45 mph are developing immediately behind it, the weather service warned.
The potential for severe weather, including damaging winds and an isolated tornado, is mainly east of Interstate 95, the NWS said, in an area stretching from Fayetteville to Rocky Mount, and including Goldsboro and Greenville.
Further east, in several counties closer to and next to the coasts of Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, the NWS issued a full tornado watch, saying that a couple of tornadoes and scattered wind gusts up to 75 mph were possible before 1 p.m.
The affected area under the watch stretches from south of Myrtle Beach to Virginia Beach, extending inland as far as Lumberton and Greenville. In total, approximately 3.3 million people live in the area, the NWS said.
To the west, the storm has left about 11,000 people without power in the Charlotte area. It is also expected to bring up to 11 inches of snow to parts of the North Carolina mountains, The Charlotte Observer reported.
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This story was originally published March 12, 2022 at 8:52 AM.
