North Carolina Today: Freezing Rain, Waterspout, and Tidal Flooding
What a day it has been for the state of North Carolina with possible tornado damage, high tide flooding at the coast, and thick ice from freezing rain.
We’ll start with the latest. The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning on Saturday afternoon for the Morehead City area until 3:15 p.m. ET. There were reports of damage nearby, in the Indian Beach and Broad Creek areas. These pictures came to us courtesy Jennifer Harstine.
The local National Weather Service office (Newport, Morehead City) scheduled a preliminary storm survey Saturday afternoon for the area near Emerald Isle and Cape Carteret in Carteret County, NC.
Prior to that, the associated storm system pushed onshore winds to the Carolina coast and brought in higher-than-average high tides.
Water is still rising in the Cape Fear River where high tide will occur at downtown Wilmington at 10:15 AM. Photos shared with us show high water in Southport, Wilmington, and North Topsail Beach. Coastal Flood Warning continues along the Cape Fear River until noon. #ncwx pic.twitter.com/aPKmILN3N7
— NWS Wilmington NC (@NWSWilmingtonNC) November 24, 2018
The combination of the recent full moon, onshore winds, and high tide brought coastal flooding to some communities.
And finally before these two events, there was fairly widespread freezing rain across western North Carolina.
These snapshots came to us courtesy video from @NPHAskins. Boone, NC had 0.13″ of ice, Glade Valley had 0.20″, Morgantown had 0.25″ and Salem, NC had 0.30″ of ice!
Oh and one more tidbit that came out from Saturday…
Even more rain fell in Wilmington, NC bringing the yearly total to more than 95 inches! There’s a chance at 100″ of rain for this location by the year’s end!
All in all it may have been a tough and dangerous day at times, but the weather will improve for the end of the weekend.
Here’s the proof.
On a storm survey in Cape Carteret then Emerald Isle. We found what the area needs after the weather we’ve had! pic.twitter.com/xLDSNEVkbl
— NWS Newport/Morehead (@NWSMoreheadCity) November 24, 2018
For WeatherNation, Meteorologist Steve Glazier