Check the batteries in your weather radios, set your weather apps to receive severe weather alerts and keep a watch on local web and broadcast weather reports.
Severe weather is on its way to the Triad, and it could range from severe thunderstorms and heavy rains to large hail, damaging winds and tornadoes.
“Definitely find a way to keep informed,” said Shawna Cokley, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Raleigh. “It’s a pretty big area that’s going to be affected. The entire southeast is going to see thunderstorm activity.”
It’s not a question of whether we’re going to get storms, but of how bad they’ll be.
“We’re going to see strong winds, hail, and maybe some tornadoes,” Cokley said. “There is likely to be very heavy rainfall, so we may see lots of flooding with that.”
Waves of storms will begin moving through the area today, with the worst of it hitting the state tonight and again Wednesday evening.
The Piedmont can expect patchy fog this morning. However, the NWS has issued a flash flood watch from 6 p.m. today to 6 a.m. Wednesday.
This is the same storm system that spawned tornadoes in Arkansas and Oklahoma, killing at least 16 people. The same system also is responsible for at least seven deaths in Alabama and Mississippi on Monday.
People can prepare by tying down trash cans and bringing inside anything that might blow away or become a projectile in high winds. Flashlights with fresh batteries might come in handy tonight, as well.
The storms couldn’t come at a worse time for strawberry farmers. The crop is at its most vulnerable, with ripe berries on the vine.
James Kenan and his wife, Bernice “Bernie” Kenan, started picking at Bernie’s Berries last Thursday. Two weeks ago, they were dealing with ice.
“If we get three inches of rain, it won’t be good for us,” James Kenan said. “Rain is bad, but hail is worse. Hail would put us out of business.”
Once berries are ripe, several days of rain puddles up under the plants and turns the berries to mush.
“It’s like taking berries home and putting them in a bowl of water for two days,” Kenan said.
With hail, they get bruised and rot.
“We’re hoping for the best, but we have to take what we get,” Kenan said.
Posted 9:53 a.m.
The storms that pounded the Midwest on Sunday are expected in the Triad over the next few days.
Several rounds of showers and thunderstorms will cross the Piedmont on Tuesday and Wednesday, including Forsyth, Guilford, Alamance, Davidson and Randolph counties.
A few of the storms could have large hail, damaging wind gusts and tornadoes, according to the National Weather Service.
The biggest chance for severe weather in the Triad is Tuesday night and again Wednesday afternoon and evening, the weather service reported. There is also a chance of flash flooding.
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