Large hail, damaging winds – possibly a tornado – threaten Charlotte area this week
Storms could deliver large hail and damaging winds to the Charlotte area on Thursday, with tornadoes also possible, National Weather Service meteorologists said Tuesday.
“Potential severe weather will be in store for the entire area on Thursday,” meteorologists in the NWS Greer, S.C., office said in a hazardous weather outlook statement.
One weather forecast model predicts that any severe weather that reaches the Charlotte area will stay east of the Interstate 77 corridor, according to the NWS.
Two other models predict a “slower progression” of a storm system that’s forecast to move northeast into the Carolinas from the Mississippi Valley, and that would produce the damaging winds, large hail, and a tornado or two, NWS forecasters said.
“Due to the time discrepancies still in place with the latest model trends, uncertainty in the severity of this event still exists,” according to an updated NWS bulletin just after 10:30 a.m. Tuesday.
The Charlotte area and Upstate South Carolina are under an “enhanced risk” of severe weather on Thursday, according to the National Storm Prediction Center.
The severe weather is expected to move into the region on Thursday afternoon, NWS meteorologist Mike Rehnberg told The Charlotte Observer late Tuesday morning.
The severe weather would head north from the Gulf Coast and Mississippi Valley, he said.
Charlotte has a 70% chance of rain late Wednesday and an 80% chance on Thursday, according to the NWS.
Highs are expected to leap from 65 degrees Wednesday to 72 on Thursday, NWS meteorologists said.
Friday should turn mostly sunny and Saturday all sunshine, with respective highs of 62 and 53 degrees, according to the latest NWS forecast late Tuesday morning.
This story was originally published March 16, 2021 at 12:16 PM with the headline "Large hail, damaging winds – possibly a tornado – threaten Charlotte area this week."