RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) — A series of severe thunderstorm warnings and tornado warnings were issued beginning at 3:45 p.m. The latest weather warnings can be viewed here or below:
The alert came quickly and lasted until about 5 p.m.
There are no active weather warnings remaining in the ABC11 observation area. A tornado warning remained in effect for the Eastern Viewing Area, but was canceled shortly after 7 p.m.
Hailstones the size of ping pong balls could be seen falling from the sky in Enfield during a tornado warning.
In this video from the Halifax County Sheriff's Office, there's hail in Enfield this afternoon.
Duke Energy reported that about 1,000 people were without power south of Wendell. The power company said downed trees caused the outage.
Downed trees in Nash County are also believed to have left hundreds without power.
If you lose power: Here's how to report and check for an outage in your area.
George Daniel, who lives in Neck, Scotland, was at Hardy's house when everyone's phones started ringing.
Trees fell and streets flooded in Scotland Neck.
Daniel is outside inspecting the damage. There is severe flooding in streets in Scotland Neck.
“I used to do cleanup work, dealing with storms and stuff like that. I'm retired now. I still like to come out and see it,” Daniel said.
A stormy Memorial Day
A series of severe storms swept through the central and southern United States over the Memorial Day holiday weekend, killing at least 21 people, destroying homes, businesses and causing power outages.
這場破壞性的風暴在德克薩斯州、俄克拉荷馬州、阿肯色州和肯塔基州造成了死亡，而且就在從德克薩斯州南部到佛羅裡達州的初季熱浪的北部，創下了log.
Severe weather across the United States is causing flight delays and changes to travel plans.
Forecasters said the severe weather could move to the East Coast late Monday and warned millions of people vacationing outdoors to watch the skies.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who earlier declared a state of emergency, said at a news conference Monday that four people had died in four different counties.
Tornadoes ripped through a mobile home park on Saturday, killing 21 people, including seven in Cook County, Texas, and eight in Arkansas, officials said.
Two people died in Mayes County, Oklahoma, east of Tulsa, authorities said. Among those injured were guests at an outdoor wedding.
The latest community to see its homes destroyed and power outage was the small community of Charleston, Kentucky, which took a direct hit Sunday night from a tornado that the governor said appeared to have covered an area of 40 miles (64 kilometers).
“It was a mess,” said Rob Linton, who lives in Charleston and is the fire chief in nearby Dawson Springs, who was hit by a tornado in 2021. “There were trees down everywhere. Houses move. Power lines are down.
Further east, some rural areas around the community of Barnsley in Hopkins County were again devastated by the 2021 tornadoes, said Nick Bailey, county emergency management director.
“There's a lot of people who are just getting back to their normal lives and then this happens,” Bailey said. “Pretty much in the same place, same house and everything.”
Beshear has made several trips to the area where his father grew up to attend ceremonies where people who have lost everything are given the keys to their new homes.
The visit comes after a series of tornadoes killed 81 people in Kentucky on a horrific night in December 2021.
“It could have been worse,” Beshear said of the Memorial Day weekend storm. “Kentucky people are very weather aware with everything we go through.”
On Monday afternoon, more than 500,000 customers were without power in the eastern United States, including about 170,000 customers in Kentucky. According to PowerOutage.us, 12 states reported at least 10,000 outages.
The area under the highest severe weather alert Monday was a swath of the eastern United States from Alabama to New York.
President Joe Biden expressed his condolences to the families of the victims. He said the Federal Emergency Management Agency was on the ground conducting damage assessments and he had contacted governors to see what federal support they might need.
It's a grim month for tornadoes and severe weather in the central part of the country.
Tornadoes in Iowa last week killed at least five people and injured dozens more. Earlier this month, storms in Houston killed eight people. The severe thunderstorms and deadly tornadoes come during a historically bad tornado season, at a time when climate change is driving the severity of storms around the world. The number of tornadoes in April was the second-highest on record in the country.
Harold Brooks, senior scientist at the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, said a series of tornadoes over the past two months were caused by persistent warm, moist air.
Warm, moist air sits at the northern edge of the heat dome, bringing temperatures typically seen in mid-summer through late May.
The heat index, a combination of air temperature and humidity that indicates how the body feels about heat, is expected to reach 120 degrees Fahrenheit (49 degrees Celsius) in parts of South Texas on Monday. Brownsville, San Antonio and Dallas are expected to hit record highs.
Miami hit an all-time high of 96 degrees Fahrenheit (35.5 degrees Celsius) on Sunday.
Looking to North Carolina's future
The humidity seems to have dropped a bit this week and so have the temperatures.
Saturday will be sunny and pleasant, while Sunday will be cloudy with a slight risk of showers and storms.
ABC11's Josh Chapin also contributed.
Copyright © 2024 WTVD-TV. all rights reserved.
