Intense storms knocked out power for thousands and spawned tornado warnings as they tracked east across North Carolina Monday.
A preliminary report from the National Weather Service released Tuesday morning shows a small twister did spin up in Mecklenburg County. The tornado that hit in the Huntersville area moved at 85 mph and is considered a high-end EF0, weaher authorites say. The storm was about 50 yards wide.
Thousands of homes and businesses in the state are still without power as of Tuesday morning. You can track the outages by clicking here.
Straight-line winds took down trees and knocked out electricity, according to Spectrum News 1 meteorologists.
At its peak, the worst power outages were reported in Wake County, with over 70,000 customers without power as of about 8:30 p.m., according to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety. There were also reports of dozens of trees down from the storm around Mecklenburg County, with 18,000 customers without power.
Rowan County had over 17,000 without power at 8:30 p.m., according to NCDPS. Catawba County had over 15,000 homes and businesses without power.
Those numbers started to decline overnight as crews worked to restore power and make repairs.
Weather officials say the storm was moving at about 50 mph across the state Monday evening.
The Winston-Salem Fire Department said the storm knocked down trees, taking out power lines and traffic signals on Peters Creek Parkway.
Photos from across the state showed trees down. There were reports of downed trees from Charlotte up to the Triad as the storm continued to track east.