Columbus County NEWS Weather Update for Thursday August 27, 2026.
This weather update is sponsored by Freedom Insurance of Whiteville. Trust Freedom Insurance to give you clear blue skies when it comes to home, car, boat, or whatever insurance you need. Let Freedom provide customized coverage to keep you and your family safe. Contact Freedom today at 910-640-2828!
Here’s today’s Bottom Line
A rather rainy/unsettled weather pattern will descend upon us by this afternoon, lasting through the weekend.
A very slow-moving frontal system along the Appalachians will allow a deep, subtropical air mass to become established over the state. This front will inch its way closer to the coast… finally pushing offshore by Sunday afternoon.
In the meantime, the stage will be set for multiple waves of showers and thunderstorms, especially Friday into Friday night. Some of these storms will be capable of producing intense local rainfall, which could lead to some flash flooding. The NWS WPC has placed most of the state under a level 1 risk for today… but a 15% risk has been placed for our area on Friday.
Similar to last week, who-gets-what is a crapshoot. Some areas may get many inches of rainfall while other areas receive relatively little. Modeling is kind of all over the place with this, which is expected quite honestly. John in Chadbourn might pick up 4-7 inches of rain through the weekend while here in Whiteville we get half an inch. Or vice versa.
There is a low-end severe risk on Friday. With such tremendous moisture available, any storm that pops into the 40k ft-60k ft range in height will be capable of producing damaging downburst/microburst winds.
Frequent to near-constant cloud-to-ground lightning is almost a certainty, especially Friday into Saturday.
LUNAR ECLIPSE: There will be a lunar eclipse tonight. Viewing….. “good luck.” Mostly cloudy skies will be over the area with a chance for some showers.
TROPICS: The NHC has lowered the percent chance of formation in the Atlantic. A system could still come together, but there’s a LOT of shear over the central Atlantic, which will make long-term survival chances rather poor. Still, we’ll keep an eye on it.
Here is your Freedom Insurance Today-plus-Five Forecast:
–Meteorologist Christopher Cawley
