Scattered severe storms make for noisy evening

"Whenever you have severe weather, you can't rule out an isolated thunderstorm that could produce a tornado," WRAL meteorologist Mike Maze said.

Multiple trees were reported down in Raleigh due to the storms traveling across the Triangle.

In Person County, storms downed trees in several neighborhoods and emergency personnel said power lines in the 6400 block of Woodsdale Road in Roxboro had been knocked down.

According to Duke Energy, 8,485 power outages reported in Wake County, and 7,223 were without power in Granville County as of 9:35 p.m.

“The further north you go, the more active things have been, but things are starting to settle down,” WRAL Chief Meteorologist Greg Fishel said. “Showers and thunderstorms could continue into the overnight period.”

Temperatures climbed into the 90s Thursday afternoon, but extensive cloud cover meant that the mercury did not approach the near-record highs as expected.

Fishel said another system in Virginia will enter central North Carolina but will weaken as it rolls through the area.

“It does raise the possibility that we’ll have overnight showers and storms into the overnight hours,” he said.

Fishel said the storms will continue to linger but should be gone by the morning rush hour.

Friday will be another humid day with the potential for storms, but the weekend will cool off, with temperatures in the 80s and winds at 15 to 20 mph.

“With the heat of the day tomorrow, it’s likely we’ll see more scattered showers and thunderstorms pop up as we head into the mid and late afternoon hours," Fishel said. "As we head into the weekend, it’ll be cooler and a bit more stable, and our chance for storms should be considerably less.”