ASHEBORO N.C. – Forecasters are calling for severe weather including the threat of severe thunderstorms, hail, and an isolated tornado all possible across central North Carolina, including Randolph County, Monday evening.
Monday will start off nice with partly to mostly sunny skies and a high reaching near 90 degrees, but an approaching cold front is expected to arrive sometime around 3pm in the afternoon.
That cold front brings a serious threat of severe storms across western Piedmont Monday afternoon and into the evening as it develops into a line or large cluster of severe thunderstorms that will move eastward across the area.
Those storms are likely to bring severe thunderstorms, including damaging winds, large hail, lighting, flash flooding and a possiable tornado.
The threat is severe enough that the Storm Prediction Center increased the risk across a substantial portion of central North Carolina to an “enhanced” risk this morning, and a short time ago expanded the enhanced risk to the east in an afternoon update.
“For context, the Raleigh forecast area typically averages about 2 enhanced risks per year on the day 2 forecast, so this is not a common occurrence,” said forecasters with the National Weather Service Office in Raleigh in a forecast discussion on the NWS website.
Officials are urging residents to stay weather aware and ensure they have a way to receive weather alerts throughout the day on Monday. Randolph County operates a free emergency notification system called REACT (Randolph’s Emergency Alert Technology), which can send alerts via phone, text message or email.
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