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.
Much cooler weather will be in store for today as light rain will be off and on throughout the day. Rain will taper off by this evening with overnight lows in the 30s (mountains) and 40s. Came close to declaring tonight a Blackberry Winter. #scwx #ncwx #gawx pic.twitter.com/TdsVh7kIHj
— NWS GSP (@NWSGSP) April 21, 2024
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.
@NWSGSP Rock Hill SC pic.twitter.com/5oDGl0qjU2
— Damaris De Quintanilla (@DamarisDeQuint5) April 20, 2024
Various sizes of hail fell in #CatawbaSC. @NWSGSP pic.twitter.com/OEbzstoQNk
— Trent Faris (@trentfaris) April 20, 2024
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.