CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Hundreds of people are without power after strong thunderstorms moved across the Charlotte early Tuesday morning with heavy rain, loud thunder and brilliant lightning strikes.
According to Duke Energy, over 2,200 customers lost power in Mecklenburg County with the majority of those outages occurring in the area of North Craighead Road in north Charlotte. Duke said power lines were knocked down during the storm. As of 8:15 a.m., over 1,500 customers are still in the dark across Mecklenburg County. Nearly all of those outages are centered around north Charlotte.
Several people posted on social media that loud bangs of thunder woke them around 2:30 a.m. when the storms were right over Charlotte.
First Warn forecaster Larry Sprinkle says the strongest storms are moving out of the area but there will be some showers throughout Tuesday morning before rain gives way to cloudy skies. More rain is expected Wednesday, Sprinkle said.
"Light rain showers, not expecting any heavy storms tomorrow," Sprinkle explained. "The majority of the rain will be south of Charlotte, from Rock Hill down to Lancaster and Chesterfield County."
Wednesday's storms will linger throughout the day and evening before a shot of cold air brings the threat of snow to the North Carolina mountains Thursday morning.
