Charlotte area under severe weather watch as storms knock out power to thousands
The Charlotte area was under a severe thunderstorm watch until noon Saturday, as a line of fierce overnight storms knocked out power to 5,000 residents in the North Carolina foothills and mountains.
Tornadoes and damaging gusts 'are the main hazards,' National Weather Service meteorologists said in a hazardous weather bulletin Saturday morning.
The NWS warned of quarter-size hail and gusts up to 60 mph for Monroe and Wingate until 9:30 a.m.
The PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte suspended play at 8:15 a.m. 'due to dangerous weather in the area,' the tournament said on social media site X. 'Please seek shelter immediately.'
'Due to dangerous weather in the area, Round 3 starting times will be a split tee off of #1 & #10 tees in groups of 3 from 11:43 AM - 1:55 PM,' the tournament posted at 9 a.m.
'The line of storms will gradually weaken as it pushes east of the North Carolina mountains,' according to the alert. 'However, isolated strong to severe storms are possible east of the mountains later this morning.'
The alert included Mecklenburg and surrounding counties and the rest of Western North Carolina, along with Upstate South Carolina.
The storms were part of the system that spawned tornadoes that killed at least 21 people in Missouri and southeastern Kentucky, NWS meteorologist Trisha Palmer told The Charlotte Observer.
The system weakened as it moved east into the North Carolina mountains, she said.
Nearly 5,000 Duke Energy customers were without power Saturday morning, mainly from the Morganton-Hickory area on west to Tennessee, according to the company outage map.
Outages fell to 3,400 by 11:45 a.m. Saturday. Power was expected to be restored by about 4 p.m. to the several hundred customers without electricity in Mecklenburg County.
No damage was immediately reported.
Charlotte's airport experienced 238 flight delays and 56 cancellations by 2:30 p.m. Saturday, according tracking site Flight Aware.com. It wasn't known how many were weather-related.
Delays included 116 outbound flights and 122 inbound.
Charlotte remained mostly sunny with an expected high of 86 on Saturday. Skies should stay mostly sunny until Tuesday, when potentially stormy clouds are predicted, according to the 2:30 p.m. Saturday forecast.
From 8 p.m. Tuesday until 2 a.m. Wednesday, Charlotte has a 50% chance of showers and thunderstorms, the forecast showed. Showers are likely after noon Wednesday, according to the NWS.
Thursday and Friday should be sunny to mostly sunny.
The NWS predicts highs of 86 on Sunday, 85 on Monday, 83 on Tuesday, 81 on Wednesday, 73 on Thursday and 74 on Friday.
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