Is Tropical Storm Harvey Headed For Charlotte?

CHARLOTTE, NC — After devastating the Houston area as a hurricane and strengthening back into a tropical storm before making landfall again in Louisiana, Harvey is set to become the costliest storm in U.S. history. And there's a possibility we could experience some of its effects here in Charlotte by the weekend.

Hurricane Harvey made landfall last Friday as a category 4 hurricane. It stalled over the Houston area where it dumped more than four feet of rain in some areas before moving back out into the Gulf and then hitting Louisiana Wednesday. It is expected to move a lot quicker this time around, heading northeast in the coming days.

The current forecast calls for it to reach the Tennessee border by early Friday morning and then end up in Kentucky by Saturday. (Get Patch real-time email alerts for the latest news in Charlotte — or other neighborhoods. And iPhone users: Check out Patch's new app.)

According to the National Weather Service, the Charlotte region will begin seeing rain from the system by the weekend. NWS predicts a 70 percent chance of thunderstorms Thursday and Friday, with the possibility of precipitation tapering off over the weekend.

Of course, it wouldn't bring near the devastating effects as it did for the Gulf Coast. By then, the storm would be nothing more than some dissipated remnants bearing little resemblance to the Harvey that roared ashore the Texas coast last week.

Still, it shows how impressive and frightening the storm turned out to be -- that it could drop some rain on our area after slamming into a Texas coast 1,500 miles away a week and a half earlier.

» Patch Editor Dan Taylor contributed to this report.

Image via the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

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