Weather update for Charlotte: Rainy Father’s Day as Claudette moves closer to Carolinas

Heavy rain on Father’s Day is expected to continue throughout the Charlotte region most of Sunday.

Tropical Storm Claudette from the Gulf Coast could spawn a tornado, a National Weather Service meteorologist said Saturday night, but thunderstorms and potentially dangerous roads where water collects remain the most significant risk for most of the area based on Sunday’s weather update.

“The risk of tornadoes extends up into Charlotte, but it’s better south and east of Charlotte,” meteorologist Jake Wimberley of the NWS office in Greer, S.C., told The Charlotte Observer at 6 p.m. Saturday.

Claudette’s projected cone shifted east on National Hurricane Center maps on Saturday afternoon, with the northern edge still passing through Charlotte on Sunday. Early Sunday, the storm was classified as a tropical depression.

The NWS predicts 1 1/2 to 2 inches of rainfall for most of Mecklenburg County, Wimberley said.

The heaviest bands in Charlotte were expected between 2 a.m. and 8 a.m. Sunday, Wimberley said. Still, with so much rain already fallen and more ahead, the Charlotte Knights on Sunday canceled their afternoon game at Truist Field in uptown.

The Hurricane Center issued a tropical storm watch at 11 a.m. Saturday for the N.C. coast from Cape Fear to Duck on the Outer Banks. The Pamlico and Albemarle sounds also fall under the watch.

“... Claudette is forecast to become a tropical storm again when it moves across the Carolinas Sunday night or early Monday” the Hurricane Center said in an 11 a.m. Saturday update.

Expected Charlotte downpours

In Charlotte, “there will be a few breaks when it’s dry, but it will be pretty much heavy rain on and off throughout” the 24 hours, Chaney said.

NWS forecasters predict 2.13 inches of rain for uptown, with 1 to 2 inches most everywhere elsewhere in the region, including Upstate South Carolina, according to Chaney.

At 11 a.m. Sunday, Claudette was approaching Atlanta, with winds near 30 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Light wind expected in Charlotte

For the Charlotte area, winds are forecast to diminish greatly by the time the storm arrives, Chaney said.

That doesn’t mean tornadoes couldn’t form in the region, particularly in the Interstate 85 corridor, according to Wimberley.

The Charlotte forecast Sunday morning called for gusts of only 5 to 7 mph on Sunday night, with a high of 82 degrees on Father’s Day and a 90% chance of rain, according to the NWS.

Early Monday, the system should move east from the Charlotte area and eventually into the Atlantic.

Still, Charlotte has an 80% chance of showers again on Tuesday, the NWS forecast shows. That’s due to an unrelated cold front expected to move into the area, Chaney said.