Storms, damaging winds and cold plunge in Triangle area forecast. Here’s when
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- Cold front brings widespread showers and storms to the Triangle.
- NWS warns damaging wind gusts, highest risk near SC border counties.
- Temps near 70 Thursday, falling to 40s Thursday night and 30s by Friday morning.
The Triangle could see strong to severe showers and thunderstorms today with a risk of damaging winds.
A cold front that moved across the Midwest brought a string of widespread showers through the Triangle in late morning and early afternoon on Thursday, March 12, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Andrew Kren.
The front moved through the Triad, past Winston-Salem shortly after 8 a.m., with temperatures already dropping 10 degrees.
“Storms between Asheville and Charlotte have become more vigorous,” according to the National Weather Service.
More than 5,000 people lost power in south Charlotte and Lake Norman area Thursday, The Charlotte Observer reported.
About 800 Duke Energy customers in Garner, 1,100 customers in Holly Springs and about 200 customers in Angier were without power as of 12:20 p.m., according to the Duke Energy outage map.
Storms might get stronger throughout the day as temperatures rise, Kren said, with the best chances for storms south of the Triangle in Fayetteville, Goldsboro and Pinehurst.
“A greater risk for strong to severe storms with damaging wind gusts, mainly during the late morning, is focused across the South Carolina border county areas,” according to the NWS briefing.
A severe thunderstorm watch was issued for 12 counties, including Johnston, Lee, Harnett and Cumberland counties, until 5 p.m. Thursday. Isolated tornados, hail and scattered gusts up to 70 mph is possible, per the National Weather Service.
The area experienced some gusts on Wednesday, with a few reports of downed trees across central North Carolina. Wind gusts reached 43 mph in Raleigh and 33 mph in Rocky Mount.
North Carolina temperature swings
Triangle television stations, like ABC11 and CBS17, are reported possible 40-degree temperature swings today in Raleigh.
The high temperature in Raleigh on Wednesday, March 11, broke a record at 89 degrees.
“We’ll still be touching close to 70 here (on Thursday),” Kren said. “But then temperatures will crash in the evening, so we’ll get down into the 40s Thursday night and then overnight lows, by Friday morning, we’ll get into the 30s.”
That’s about a 60 degree change over 36 hours.
This story was originally published March 12, 2026 at 8:51 AM with the headline "Storms, damaging winds and cold plunge in Triangle area forecast. Here’s when."
