Severe storms with tennis ball-size hail pummel Charlotte area Saturday, NWS says

Severe storms with predicted 70-mph winds and hail the size of tennis balls swept across the Charlotte area on Saturday, National Weather Service meteorologists reported.

Union County and other areas were still at risk nearing 6 p.m., according to NWS severe weather alerts on X, the former social media platform Twitter.

NWS forecasters said 70-mph gusts and tennis-ball sized hail were possible south of Waxhaw in Union and hail the size of half-dollar coins elsewhere in the region.

News media posts on X showed smashed front windshields on cars in Rock Hill.

The vast majority of outages from the storms were just west of Rock Hill, where 4,000 customers were without power at 5:45 p.m., the Duke Energy outage map showed.

No injuries were immediately reported.

Charlotte forecast: Rain, plunging temps

With a 90% chance of showers through the afternoon Sunday, Charlotte also saw a drastic drop in temperatures from last week, according to the NWS Charlotte forecast at 11 a.m. Sunday.

Charlotte’s forecast high of 55 on Sunday would be about 30 degrees lower than highs just days ago.

Conditions should quickly improve, with predicted highs of 65 on Monday, 72 on Tuesday, 77 on Wednesday, 73 on Thursday, 75 on Friday and 76 on Saturday, the forecast showed.

Partly sunny to clear skies are forecast through the week.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.