Severe storms rolling through the Charlotte region Friday knocked out power to more than 7,000 Duke Energy customers across the Carolinas, with outages concentrated in the Charlotte area and also reported in Greenville, South Carolina. The outage count was measured at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, and forecasters said more rain and storms were expected to move through the region into the evening.
According to WBTV, storms were considered particularly likely Friday afternoon and evening. Meteorologist Paul Heggen said damaging wind gusts, localized flooding, and dangerous cloud-to-ground lightning would all be possible as the system pushed through. Not every utility in the region was hit equally hard — Blue Ridge Energy reported around 34 customers experiencing outages, while Union Power Cooperative reported no outages at all, according to the cooperative’s website, per the same WBTV report.
What Counts as a Severe Storm
Meteorologists don’t use the word “severe” loosely. Under official criteria from the National Weather Service, a thunderstorm earns that designation when it produces wind gusts of at least 58 miles per hour or hail an inch or larger in diameter. Winds at that threshold are strong enough to snap tree limbs and pull down power lines, which is exactly the kind of damage that has repeatedly darkened Charlotte neighborhoods this summer.
Friday’s outages follow a similar round of storms that knocked out power to more than 18,100 customers across the Carolinas just days earlier, according to Hoodline’s prior storm coverage. The pattern fits a recurring summer weather cycle in the Carolinas, in which squall lines produce localized microbursts and lightning that routinely topple trees onto overhead lines.
Duke Energy’s Grid Under Pressure — and Under Scrutiny
Duke Energy Carolinas, headquartered in Charlotte, serves roughly 3 million residential, commercial, and industrial customers across a 24,000-square-mile territory spanning North and South Carolina, according to the utility. The company has leaned heavily on automated “self-healing” grid technology that detects disruptions and reroutes power around damaged lines without waiting for a crew — a system that now covers nearly 80% of Duke Energy’s North Carolina customers, up from less than half in 2022, per the Goldsboro Daily News…