Tropical Storm Debby 8/8 7:30 a.m. update: Heavy rain across Carolinas

Tropical Storm Debby made landfall in South Carolina early Thursday morning and is bringing the impacts of heavy rain and flash flooding to North Carolina.

Chief Meteorologist Brad Panovich said while we can't rule out severe weather from Debby in the Charlotte area, the biggest impact so far is flooding. This threat is made worse by how slow Debby is moving north. Because it's crawling, the storm is dumping heavy rain for long periods.

A large portion of the Charlotte area is under a flash flood warning due to Debby's torrential rain. The flash flood warning is in effect for Anson, Cabarrus, Mecklenburg, Richmond, Stanly and Union counties in North Carolina, plus Chester, Chesterfield, Lancaster and York counties in South Carolina.

As of 5:15 a.m. Thursday, there were roughly 5,000 power outages reported in Charlotte, around 1,000 outages in the Indian Trail area, around 1,000 in Kannapolis, and around 500 in Salisbury.

The rain was so heavy that Charlotte broke the all-time rainfall record for Aug. 8 with 1.45 inches at 6 a.m. The record of 1.37 inches had stood since 1928. The Charlotte area could see anywhere from 4-7 inches of rain from Debby. Areas to the east, including Rockingham and Wadesboro, could see over 7 inches. Areas north and west of Charlotte, including Catawba, Cleveland, Gaston, Iredell and Lincoln counties, could see 2-4 inches. The mountains are expected to get less rain, around 1-2 inches, as Debby pushes east toward the coast. #Weather #Debby #Rain

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