Severe weather and heavy rain possible on Saturday

A frontal system impacting the Outer Banks this weekend is capable of bringing strong to marginally severe thunderstorms, heavy rains, strong wind gusts, and sound-side coastal flooding, per a Friday morning update from the National Weather Service Newport/Morehead City office.

Strong westerly winds with gusts of 30-40 mph will result in elevated water levels for sound-side Outer Banks north of Ocracoke Inlet Sunday night into Monday morning.

Heavy Rain and Thunderstorms capable of producing a brief tornado and damaging wind gusts are possible Saturday afternoon and evening. Locally heavy rain could result in minor flooding due to the recent inundation of rainfall over the past week.

From March 2 through March 7, 9.15 inches of rain was recorded in Buxton, while 6.98 inches of rain was recorded in Frisco, and 5.83 inches of rain was recorded in Ocracoke.

For more information on the local forecast, visit www.weather.gov/mhx for weather information, or the National Weather Service office in Newport/Morehead City’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/NWSMoreheadCity/.