NWS Raleigh issues Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Durham, Orange, Wake and Granville counties

The National Weather Service office in Raleigh issued a Severe Thunderstorm Warning covering parts of Eastern Orange County, Southwestern Granville County, Northwestern Wake County, and Durham County — putting communities including Durham, Raleigh, Cary, and Chapel Hill under the alert.

According to alert notifications, a radar-indicated severe thunderstorm was located over Durham at the time of issuance, moving north at approximately 20 mph. The primary hazard included wind gusts up to 60 mph, strong enough to damage roofs, siding, and trees.

Major travel corridors in the warning zone included I-85, I-40, I-540, and the Durham Freeway.

An earlier Severe Thunderstorm Warning had already swept through a neighboring band of counties — Alamance, Orange, Randolph, Eastern Guilford, and Chatham. The back-to-back warnings reflect the kind of successive storm cells common in central North Carolina summer convective events.

In the Charlotte region, WBTV reported that several thunderstorm warnings were also issued around 4:45 PM that same Thursday, with damaging winds and hail cited as the main concerns as storms continued moving through the area into the night.

Both warnings have since expired. As of August 11–12, 2026, the NWS Raleigh office reported no active severe thunderstorm warnings for its coverage area. Residents seeking current conditions can check weather.gov/rah or local alert systems.

Why it matters — Residents in Durham, Raleigh, Cary, Chapel Hill, and surrounding areas along major interstates faced a 40-minute window of potentially damaging wind gusts on an active storm evening — a reminder of how quickly summer convective storms can escalate across central North Carolina.

Reported by unc.edu, weather.gov, wbtv.com, newsobserver.com