Storms drench county overnight
By Steve Herring and Nick Hiltunen
Published in News on January 25, 2010 1:46 PM
A strong line of storms with winds gusting up to 40 miles per hour swept across the state Sunday night into this morning, dropping about an inch of rain on the Wayne County area.
A tornado watch was issued, but no warnings and no tornadoes were reported, said Mike Moneypenny, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Raleigh office.
A flood watch and wind advisory also were set to expire at 9 a.m. today, but Moneypenny expected those advisories to be canceled before then.
Moneypenny said 0.86 of an inch of rain was recorded at the Goldsboro-Wayne Airport, along with a top wind gust of 39 miles per hour.
At Seymour Johnson Air Forces Base, 1.19 inches of rain and a peak wind gust of
40 miles per hour were recorded.
The widespread storm dumped close to 2 inches of rain on the Triad area, he said.
Locally, the winds began just before midnight and continued through this morning accompanied at times by heavy downpours.
Wayne County Emergency Management Coordinator Mel Powers said just after 8 a.m. that the county had seen an average of about 1.5 inches of rain, but that the wind hadn't brought in any reports of damage.
"In all honesty, we haven't had any reports yet this morning of anything troublesome, which is good. It's what we like to hear," Powers said.
He said he would be in continuous contact with representatives of the National Weather Service.
The emergency services director said his staff was "on a little bit more heightened alert" before the storm.
"As always, we monitored the system coming in, and just stayed in contact with the communications center," Powers said.
Asked if there was any advice he would give Wayne County residents, Powers advised them to just stay informed.
"When the citizens see this type of weather, they need to monitor the news stations and the radio, and just be diligent when we have this type of weather," Powers said.
Skies should begin clearing later today and residents can expected relatively mild temperatures in the mid-to-upper 60s. It will continue to be breezy with a southwest wind of 15-20 miles per hour with gusts up to 31 miles per hour by early afternoon. The next chance of rain is Friday.
Tonight's lows will be in the upper 30s to low 40s.
Temperatures on Tuesday and Wednesday are expected to be around 50, moderating to the upper 50s to low 60s by Thursday.
However, a cold front is expected Thursday night, and the area will be lucky to get out of the 40s on Friday, Moneypenny said. It is possible that temperatures could struggle to reach the 40s because of the rain, he said.