Raleigh North Carolina News

Heavy rain and strong winds from Potential Tropical Cyclone #8 are pounding North Carolina’s coast. Monday morning, Wrightsville Beach was enduring thunder, lightning, strong winds and pouring rain. Beachgoers told WRAL News waves were crashing onto the Johnnie Mercers pier. Conditions were worse in Carolina Beach, where many homes were flooded with up to 6 inches of water. Helpful links: Sign up for WRAL weather alerts | Live DUALDoppler5000 | Wind speeds and wind gusts…

On Monday, Potential Tropical Cyclone #8 is bringing heavy rain, strong winds and a threat for tornadoes, flooding and power outages to North Carolina. The biggest impacts from PTC #8 will be felt throughout Monday and into Tuesday. According to WRAL meteorologist Chris Michaels, PTC #8 could become Helene on Monday, but the impact to North Carolina will be the same even if the storm isn’t named. Flood watches and wind advisories are in effect…

Tropical systems can often spawn tornadoes. WRAL meteorologist Chris Michaels explains why. As tropical systems move over land, Michaels said the friction increases. This creates wind shear, which causes air to start spinning in the atmosphere. Tornadoes then become possible. The Storm Prediction Center (SPC) said there are four necessary ingredients for tropical systems to spawn tornadoes: Moisture, instability, lift and vertical shear. Moisture Moisture is pretty self-explanatory. We refer to it as humidity, which…

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Storm Ileana has weakened to a tropical depression, the National Hurricane Center said Sunday. The tropical storm formed Thursday off Mexico’s Pacific coast as it moved ashore, making landfall on the coast of the Mexican state of Sinaloa Saturday, a day after it pounded the resort-studded Los Cabos. On Sunday, wind speed dropped to 35 mph (55 kph), NOAA said in an advisory, as Ileana was nearly 30 miles (45 kilometers)…

Just one day away from the sixth anniversary of Hurricane Florence, Crystle Silvey says horrible memories are flooding back. “We lost everything we owned,” Silvey said. We didn’t we didn’t even have any clothes.” Silvey’s home in Winnabow was one of several impacted by the intense flooding Florence brought to the area. After the water in her home got several feet high, she and her family were eventually rescued by the Coast Guard. Their nightmare…

A bride-to-be turned to 5 On Your Side for help after a VRBO host refused to cancel her reservation. Caroline Davies is facing a significant financial loss after her bachelorette party at Big Bear Lake was threatened by a massive California wildfire. The rental home is just 0.18 miles outside a mandatory evacuation zone. Even with the entire county under a state of emergency and air quality warnings, the VRBO host, Ella Homes, refused to…

MORGAN CITY, La. (AP) — Francine weakened to a tropical storm late Wednesday after striking Louisiana as a Category 2 hurricane that blacked out more than 275,000 homes and businesses, sent storm surge rushing into coastal communities and raised flood fears in New Orleans and beyond as drenching rains spread over the northern Gulf Coast. The storm was forecast to be downgraded to a tropical depression Thursday as it churned northward over Mississippi, the National…

By Brian Murphy and Brett Kneese, WRAL Signs for Lenovo, a global computer manufacturer with a nearby headquarters, are being installed at the Carolina Hurricanes’ arena in Raleigh, one day before the authority that owns the venue is set to vote on a new naming rights agreement. PNC Bank held the naming rights to the arena since 2012. Its deal expired at the end of August. The name Lenovo Center was unintentionally revealed in a…

By Mark Bergin, WRAL senior multiplatform producer Raleigh, N.C. — The Carolina Hurricanes enter the 2024-25 season having made the playoffs in six consecutive seasons but are still vying to win their first Stanley Cup since 2006. Canes head coach Rod Brind’Amour is entering his seventh season as the team’s head coach. The Canes have twice made it to the Eastern Conference Finals, but got swept in 2019 and 2023. In a Wednesday interview with…

TRABUCO CANYON, Calif. (AP) — Apocalyptic-looking plumes of smoke filled skies east of Los Angeles on Tuesday as firefighters battled three major wildfires that erupted amid a blistering heat wave and threatened tens of thousands of homes and other structures. Evacuation orders were expanded Tuesday night as the fires grew and included parts of the popular ski town of Big Bear and the entire community of Wrightwood, with about 4,500 residents. Authorities implored people to…

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Hurricane Francine barreled early Wednesday toward Louisiana and is expected to make landfall in coming hours as forecasters raised threats of potentially deadly storm surge, widespread flooding and destructive winds on the northern U.S. Gulf coast. Francine drew fuel from exceedingly warm Gulf of Mexico waters to jump from a tropical storm to a Category 1 hurricane on Tuesday night. The National Hurricane Center said Francine might even reach Category…

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Francine became a hurricane Tuesday evening as it barreled toward south Louisiana, strengthening over extremely warm Gulf waters as those in possible harm’s way rushed to complete storm preparations, filling sandbags, buying gas and stocking up on necessities for an expected landfall in the coming day. Residents, especially in south Louisiana, have a 24-hour window to “batten down all the hatches,” Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry warned at midday while Francine…

By Brian Murphy, WRAL The stadium home of the Carolina Hurricanes and NC State men’s basketball won’t be known as PNC Arena any longer. A new video game offers a clue as to what the arena could be called moving forward. The signage on the outside of the arena was being taken down Monday, and the Centennial Authority — which owns the arena — has scheduled a special meeting Thursday to approve a contract with…

RABAT, Morocco (AP) — Torrential downpours hit North Africa’s normally arid mountains and deserts over the weekend, causing flooding that killed more than a dozen people in Morocco and Algeria and destroyed homes and critical infrastructure. In Morocco, officials said the two days of storms surpassed historic averages, in some cases exceeding the annual average rainfall. The downpours affected some of the regions that experienced a deadly earthquake one year ago. Meteorologists had predicted that…

HIGHLAND, Calif. (AP) — An out-of-control wildfire in the foothills of a national forest east of Los Angeles threatened ten of thousands of buildings and forced hundreds of residents to flee Sunday amid a days-long heat wave of triple-digit temperatures. The so-called Line Fire was burning along the edge of the San Bernardino National Forest, about 65 miles (105 kilometers) east of Los Angeles. As of Sunday morning, the blaze had charred about 27 square…