Here is a recap of Sundays Storms...
Another team from the Weather Service is in Gaston and Mecklenburg counties today, to determine if the storm which caused damage in Belmont and northwest Mecklenburg also was a twister.
The meteorologists said the storm in Spencer was an EF1 on the enhanced Fujita scale, which measures severity of tornadoes. That is the second-weakest of six categories, but an EF1 can contain winds of up to 100 mph.
The storm in Gaston County toppled trees and peeled a massive metal roof from an industrial building in Belmont. The Spencer storm, which later crossed into Davidson County, triggered strong winds that tore off parts of the facade of a Food Lion grocery store and tossed it across a parking lot.
The good news: No injuries directly caused by the storms were reported.
There were no reports of serious flooding, even though nearly 2 inches of rain was reported in an eight-hour span at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport. A flood advisory was issued overnight for Mallard Creek near UNC Charlotte, when gauges indicated the creek had spilled out of its banks. But creek water levels had dropped by this morning.
While National Weather Service investigators check the locations of possible tornadoes, other people will be busy today with the aftermath of the storms.
Downed trees are being cut, and power crews are finishing work on repairs to utility lines. Another busy group today is auto insurance adjusters, as large hail was reported in a number of locations Sunday afternoon and evening.
Not all areas were affected. For example, southeast Mecklenburg County, Matthews and southwest Union County largely escaped damaging weather. But most areas were impacted by either hail or damaging winds.
The storm came in three waves, with the first thunderstorm producing the most damage.
First storm
The first round arrived in the area about 5:30 p.m. In far western Mecklenburg, sheds were wrapped around utility poles, trees fell onto homes, power lines were down and a roof was ripped off a building by that band of storms.
Before reaching Mecklenburg, the storm walloped the Belmont area of Gaston County, blowing the roof off Parkdale Fiber Distribution Center. The roof ended up in trees and on the ground, along with ribbons of yellow foam insulation scattered like confetti. One piece of crumpled metal slightly smaller than a fire truck lay on the ground between two mobile homes. Trees were dropped throughout the Belmont-Mount Holly area.
A resident at the Wylie Overlook mobile home park was taken to a hospital for observation after flying debris from the Parkdale building damaged her mobile home, authorities said. She was expected to be fine. All but the damaged mobile homes are still habitable, Gaston County emergency officials said.
As night fell, firefighters were still on the scene clearing debris, and power company employees worked to restore electricity. Metal strips blew from the warehouse's tattered roof when the wind gusted.
Mitch Carmichael was in his mobile home at the park watching the Duke-Baylor NCAA basketball game when he felt the structure shake and thought a tornado was approaching. "I sure as hell heard it," he said. "It sounded like a mini-Hugo," referring to Hurricane Hugo, which struck the area in 1989.
The power went out and Carmichael heard pine cones and other debris pelting the trailer. "I'm still shaking," he said an hour later.
David Kuhrt of Belmont was inside his mobile home when he saw something strange: "It was just pouring. Then it all of a sudden stopped raining. I looked outside and saw what looked like a cloud of red dirt coming down."
He rushed a relative's five children into a bathroom and waited. "There's no really safe place in a trailer," he said. He heard debris flying and hitting the trailer and when the storm passed, he found a baseball-sized hole punched through an outside wall.
Scott Roberts was at a nearby Wal-Mart off Wilkinson Boulevard when he stepped out for a cigarette. He looked up and saw rotating clouds. "It was the whole general sky, not just one place. It was scary." About that time, his wife called from the mobile home park and told him a tornado had just passed over.
The storm continued northeast into Mecklenburg County, primarily in western Mecklenburg and northwestern Charlotte, as swirling wind knocked over trees and power lines -- damaging properties in the 1700 block of Brim Street and the 1600 block of Wildwood Drive, Charlotte Fire Department spokesman Rob Brisley said.
Those locations were off Sam Wilson and Moores Chapel roads.
Brisley said that countywide, about a dozen homes suffered minor damage from the storm, and two suffered significant damage. No one in Mecklenburg was injured as a result, but the Red Cross was helping at least a dozen people arrange temporary shelter.
That storm swept through quickly, about 40 mph, into Cabarrus and Rowan counties, dropping quarter-sized hail and heavy rain and whipping up fast winds. Hail was reported across the area at different times through the evening from Plaza-Midwood to Mooresville.
As the storms roared up I-85, damage was reported in Spencer, where a Food Lion store on Salisbury Avenue suffered serious damage and a sign at nearby Kerr Drugs was destroyed, authorities said.
Across the street, two large trees uprooted and fell on a nearby home and other trees dropped over roads and onto power lines. Witnesses say the parking lot of the N.C. Transportation Museum was damaged.
The storm then crossed into Davidson County.
Multiple mobile homes were overturned in Linwood, outside of Lexington, and at least one person was reported injured, according to CNN. Another apparent tornado was reported on the ground in High Point, where at least 20 homes were reported damaged, the weather service said.
A number of residents in Rowan and Davidson counties took photos or video of an apparent tornado.
Second storm
Shortly before 8 p.m., a cluster of thunderstorms that had caused considerable damage in the Greenville-Spartanburg area moved into Gaston County. Emergency management officials said a tornado might have touched down near Crowders Mountain, although no serious damage was reported.
That storm touched off another tornado warning for Mecklenburg County,
It dropped large hail in the area near Northlake Mall, and also in Huntersville. As the storm moved into Cabarrus County, residents about 5 miles west of Concord reported the ground covered with hail.
This time, however, there were no reports of tornadoes in Mecklenburg County.
Third storm
Yet another severe thunderstorm reached Charlotte shortly before 10 p.m., after dropping large hail and producing wind gusts of 50 mph in York County.
This storm was responsible for blowing down several large limbs and some small trees in southwest Charlotte, near Bramblewood Road and West Arrowood Road, near the Bramblewood soccer complex. Hail up to 1 3/4 inches in diameter was reported in the Myers Park area.
A few additional storms reached the area overnight, but they were considerably weaker.
The Associated Press contributed.
Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/03/28/1342800/tornado-warning-downgraded-to.html#ixzz0jusVioJq
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