Raleigh North Carolina News

By Brian Shrader, WRAL anchor/reporter Raleigh, N.C. — North Carolina is no stranger to tornado danger. A quick tornado spawned from a band of storms March 31, bringing 100-mile-per-hour winds to Research Triangle Park. The storm damaged the roof of Pfizer’s office building and took down trees. No one was hurt, but the storm reminded the Triangle of the severe weather threats we face. Most tornadoes in the United States form in isolated storms called…

By The Associated Press CAMBRIDGE, Neb. — Wind-driven wildfires sweeping through parts of Nebraska killed a retired fire chief and injured at least 15 firefighters, authorities said Sunday. The man who died Friday night was a retired Cambridge fire chief who was working with firefighters as a spotter in Red Willow County in the southwestern corner of the state. That fire had burned more than 78 square miles (202 square kilometers) in Red Willow, Furnas…

By The Associated Press SANTA FE, N.M. — New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has signed emergency declarations as 20 wildfires continued to burn Sunday in nearly half of the state’s drought-stricken 33 counties. One wildfire in northern New Mexico that started April 6 merged with a newer fire Saturday to form the largest blaze in the state, leading to widespread evacuations in Mora and San Miguel counties. That fire was at 84 square miles…

By ADRIAN SAINZ and BRUCE SCHREINER, Associated Press MAYFIELD, Ky. — Sundays at the Bullock home in rural Kentucky were filled with lasting memories: big family dinners, cornhole, basketball and karaoke. Those gatherings ended the night of Dec. 10, when a massive tornado obliterated their Dawson Springs house, trapping Chris Bullock, 17-year-old son Stevie and miniature poodle Dewey under a crumbled brick wall in the basement. Her husband pulled them from the rubble with minor…

By FELICIA FONSECA and SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN, Associated Press FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Destructive fires in the U.S. Southwest have burned dozens of homes in northern Arizona and put numerous small villages in New Mexico in the path of danger, as wind-fueled flames chewed up wide swaths of tinder dry forest and grassland and plumes of smoke filled the sky. “It’s a very chaotic situation out there,” Stewart Turner, a fire behavior analyst, said during a…

By Aimee Wilmoth, WRAL weather executive producer The rainfall from the most active hurricane season on record was made worse due to our climate in crisis, according to new research. The 2020 hurricane season included an unprecedented 30 named storms, of which 11 of those made landfall in the United States. New research published in the journal of Nature Communications found that three-hour tropical rainfall totals were up to 10% higher when compared to tropical…

By FELICIA FONSECA, Associated Press FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Fire managers across the Southwest are reckoning with strong winds that forecasters say could lead to explosive growth in wildfires this week. Hundreds of people were evacuated in numerous blazes that have scorched structures and signaled an early start to the fire season. A wildfire on the outskirts of Flagstaff continued its run Wednesday though dry grass and scattered Ponderosa pines around homes into volcanic cinder fields,…

By Kat Campbell, WRAL meteorologist Raleigh, N.C. — North Carolina State University researchers are forecasting a busy Atlantic hurricane season that starts next month. In research published on Wednesday, NC State researchers are forecasting an above-normal season with the possibility of 17 to 21 named storms, 7 to 9 hurricanes and 3 to 5 major hurricanes. Dr. Xie was one of my professors when I studied meteorology at NC State. He evaluates sea-surface temperatures, hurricane…

By The Associated Press EUTAW, Ala. — Only 7,600 or so people live in impoverished Greene County, and hundreds of them are clustered in a public housing community called Branch Heights. Officials are now trying to find housing for more than 100 residents who were displaced when a tornado hit the neighborhood late Wednesday. The hunt is complicated by the fact that the rural area, located about 90 miles (145 kilometers) southwest of Birmingham, doesn’t…

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN, Associated Press With towering pine trees and cool mountain breezes, a pocket of southern New Mexico draws thousands of tourists and horse racing fans every summer. It’s also a community that knows how devastating wildfire can be. It was a decade ago that fire ripped through part of the village of Ruidoso, putting the vacation spot on the map with the most destructive wildfire in New Mexico’s recorded history when more…

By Keenan Willard WRAL eastern North Carolina reporter The latest report on this year’s hurricane season predicts another above-average number of storms will form in the Atlantic Ocean. Experts in North Carolina say the report comes as climate change is creating more powerful hurricanes, and making their behavior more dangerous as well. One of the first reports on the 2022 hurricane season has been released by Colorado State University. Researchers expect 19 named storms and…

By WRAL Severe Weather Center Raleigh, N.C. — It will be another warm day in central North Carolina with temperatures reaching the low to mid 80s on Wednesday. After a mostly cloudy day on Wednesday, storms are possible on Thursday with parts of central North Carolina under a Level 1 risk for severe weather. The storms are coming from a system that will likely produce rounds of severe storms across Texas, Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas…

Hundreds of millions of dollars in Hurricane Florence relief funds were distributed in North Carolina without the intended oversight in place, according to a report from N.C. Office of the State Auditor. The report said the state Department of Public Safety distributed more than $500 million from that fund with limited monitoring procedures. Another $783 million was distributed without making sure recipients could measure the results. The report said DPS required recovery fund recipients to submit monthly…

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer Climate change made the record-smashing deadly 2020 Atlantic hurricane season noticeably wetter, a new study says. And it will likely make this season rainier, too, scientists said. Human-caused climate change made the entire season — 30 named storms — drop 5% more rain. During the 14 storms that reached hurricane status the rainfall was 8% heavier, according to the study in Tuesday’s Nature Communications. “It doesn’t sound like a…

By The Associated Press EDISON, Neb. — A wildfire in southern Nebraska fueled by dry conditions and strong winds forced the evacuation of the small village of Edison, destroyed several homes and factored into the death of a rural fire chief who was killed in a crash while responding to the blaze. The Nebraska State Patrol called for a mandatory evacuation Thursday night of the Furnas County community of about 130 people about 187 miles…