Columbus County NEWS Weather Update for Tuesday July 14, 2026.
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Here’s today’s Bottom Line
COPIOUS rainfall occurred across portions of Columbus County Monday afternoon as very slow-moving thunderstorms became established. Areas just east of Whiteville received around 6 inches of rainfall in a very short time period.
While there were some areas of flooding, and while the rain is beneficial, it’s not enough to break the drought conditions ongoing over the area. Flooding is caused by so much rain falling over a small area over a short period of time. The water doesn’t have opportunity to “soak” — it just runs off and overwhelms storm drains.
I don’t care what kind of drainage system you have. When you get 3-6 inches of rain in the space of a few hours … it’s going to flood.
More thunderstorms are probable for today, mainly along and south of a line from Laurinburg through Lumberton to Wilmington. I don’t think we’ll see storms on the magnitude of what we saw Monday but some of the storms could put down some locally heavy rain … and tons of lightning.
Then the spigot is turned off, the ovens are turned on, and high pressure builds into the area for the second half of the work week.
Heat advisory criteria temps are likely again Thursday into the weekend with rain chances nearly zero.
TROPICS: You might have seen some folks on social media showing AI models indicating “something” possibly coming together in the Gulf within the 5 days or so. I’m not sold on that quite yet but will be watching carefully. The OFFICIAL forecast from the National Hurricane Center says “tropical cyclone activity is not expected during the next 7 days.”
Here is your Freedom Insurance Today-plus-Five Forecast:
–Meteorologist Christopher Cawley
