Yesterday's Storms in WNC

Here are a couple of videos I took of the weather activity yesterday, the first being an excerpt of the rain on the WCU campus...showing rain being blown off a roof and rain banding on a sidewalk. It rained pretty heavy for a handful of minutes as the leading adge of the thunderstorms swept over the area.

The second video is a little time lapse I did of the arrival of the storm.

My way home last night was blocked by a neighbor's felled tree, that had been split by the storm, and I helped him and his son-in-law make a brush pile out of it. Luckily for him, the tree only did slight damage to his deck railing.

Here are a couple of reports of what the line of storms did around the region:

ASHEVILLE — A severe thunderstorm swept through the area Thursday, downing trees and cutting power to homes in West Asheville.

...

Asheville police reported several trees down after the storm swept though the city about 4:30 p.m. A tree went down on Interstate 26 near the Brevard Road exit while another tree was felled at Coleman Avenue and Conestee Street in North Asheville, dispatchers said.

Source: Asheville Citizen-Times

Rainy weather continued in Western North Carolina on Thursday, causing more than 4,100 Duke Energy customers to lose power, and the pattern is expected through Sunday.

The National Weather Service in Greenville, S.C., issued a severe thunderstorm watch for Western North Carolina until 8 p.m. Thursday. In addition to the thunderstorm watch, the Weather Service also issued a hazardous weather outlook for much of the region.

Residents can expect scattered afternoon thunderstorms, possibly becoming strong to severe, beginning today through Sunday.

With the storms comes the possibility of large hail, damaging winds and heavy downpours.

Thursday afternoon, Duke Energy reported 4,155 homes and businesses without power from downtown Hendersonville to East Flat Rock. By 9:30 p.m., 426 Duke customers in Henderson County were still without power. Transylvania County had 22 Duke customers without power at 9:30 p.m., while Polk had 12.

Source: Hendersonville News-Times

As I write this another line of less violent storms are approaching the area. From the National Weather Service:

SHORT TERM FORECAST
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC
333 AM EDT FRI JUN 12 2009

NCZ033-048>053-058-059-062>065-501-503-505-507-509-121000-
AVERY-BUNCOMBE-BURKE MOUNTAINS-CALDWELL MOUNTAINS-GRAHAM-HAYWOOD-
HENDERSON-MACON-MADISON-MCDOWELL MOUNTAINS-MITCHELL-NORTHERN JACKSON-
POLK MOUNTAINS-RUTHERFORD MOUNTAINS-SOUTHERN JACKSON-SWAIN-
TRANSYLVANIA-YANCEY-
333 AM EDT FRI JUN 12 2009

.NOW...
SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL MOVE EAST AND INTO THE NORTH
CAROLINA MOUNTAINS FROM EASTERN TENNESSEE THROUGH 6 AM.
HEAVY RAINFALL AND GUSTY WINDS WILL ACCOMPANY SOME OF
THE THUNDERSTORMS NEAR THE TENNESSEE BORDER.

$

So, I may take the opportunity to take a little nap since it looks like the electrical activity will be to the north and south of me in this round.

**5.04am** I went out and tried to get some shots of the lightning, but chickened out because the dark shapes of the clouds moving fast (I mean FAST) between me and Franklin spooked me real good.

Here are some storm reports gleaned from the Storm Prediction Center:

Format

Time	Size	Location	County	State	Lat	Lon	Comments

HAIL REPORTS

1845 75 ROBBINSVILLE GRAHAM NC 3532 8381 (GSP)
1953 88 BURNSVILLE YANCEY NC 3592 8230
2017 88 7 SE CONOVER CATAWBA NC 3564 8113 SPOTTER REPORTS NICKEL SIZED HAIL ONE MILE WEST OF INTERSECTION OF HIGHWAY 16 AND BUFFALO SHOALS ROAD. (GSP)

WIND REPORTS

900 UNK FRANKLIN MACON NC 3518 8338 TREES DOWN IN FRANKLIN AND THROUGHOUT THE COUNTY (GSP)
1910 UNK BRYSON CITY SWAIN NC 3543 8345 TREES DOWN THROUGHOUT THE COUNTY (GSP)
1930 UNK MARION MCDOWELL NC 3568 8201 TREES DOWN AROUND MARION AND SUGAR HILL AREAS (GSP)
1945 UNK 1 SW CULLOWHEE JACKSON NC 3530 8319 LARGE LIMBS AND SEVERAL TREES BLOWN DOWN (GSP)
2030 UNK LEICESTER BUNCOMBE NC 3565 8269 TREES DOWN (GSP)
2030 UNK SPRUCE PINE MITCHELL NC 3592 8207 SEVERAL TREES DOWN (GSP)
2050 UNK 1 NW ASHEVILLE BUNCOMBE NC 3558 8256 NUMEROUS TREES DOWN IN WEST AND NORTHERN PART OF TOWN (GSP)