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Debby weakened Thursday afternoon from a tropical storm to a tropical depression, though<b> </b>the risk of flooding and tornado warnings remain in effect overnight<b> </b>as the storm continues its northward path.

The storm made its second landfall hours earlier, coming ashore as a tropical storm along the central coast of South Carolina, days after its initial landfall along Florida’s Big Bend as a Category 1 hurricane. At least seven people have died across three states as the storm produced floods and spawned tornadoes in its path.

Additional tornadoes may still occur in parts of North Carolina and the eastern Mid-Atlantic, including in the D.C. region, the National Weather Service warned. As it heads north Thursday night into Friday, the storm is forecast to gain speed, and the potential for “catastrophic flooding” remains in parts of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.

The National Weather Service issued tornado warnings until 8:15 p.m. Eastern for Spotsylvania Courthouse and Brokenburg in Virginia, as well as Norlina, Warrenton and Macon in North Carolina, just as another tornado warning for Fredericksburg, Va., lapsed at 7:45 p.m.

Tornado watches are issued by the Storm Prediction Center for counties where tornadoes may occur, according to the Weather Service. A warning is disseminated when a tornado has been sighted or indicated by weather radar.

Kyle Rempfer

Numerous vehicles were trapped in floodwaters in northern Delaware, according to a <a href="https://www.wunderground.com/severe/us/de/wilmington" target=_blank>flash-flood warning </a>issued by the National Weather Service at 7:28 p.m.

About 18 miles south of Wilmington, a trailer park was being evacuated near the towns of Kirkwood and Red Lion, according to the warning. Between 2.5 and 6 inches of rain have fallen as showers and isolated thunderstorms continue in the region.

Anumita Kaur

The D.C. region is now under a <a href="https://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/watch/ww0615.html" target=_blank>tornado watch</a> issued by the National Weather Service until 7 a.m. Friday, though there is a chance the watch could be extended later. While a tornado can’t be ruled out this evening and overnight, the chance of tornadoes in our area appears to be highest Friday morning, around 6 to 11 a.m.

A tornado watch means conditions across a broad geographical region are conducive to tornado development. This particular watch stretches from eastern North Carolina to the Maryland-Pennsylvania border. If a tornado develops or is suspected, then the Weather Service will issue a warning for a localized area.

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024/08/08/debby-dc-maryland-virginia-flooding-tornadoes/?itid=lk_inline_manual_13" target="_blank">Read the full story</a>

Ian Livingston

Jeffrey Halverson

Nearly 74,000 people remained without power as Debby moved north.

According to <a href="http://poweroutage.us/" target=_blank>poweroutage.us</a>, there are 57,135 in North Carolina without power, and 16,144 without power in Virginia as of Thursday evening.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) <a href="https://x.com/NC_Governor/status/1821642549892628485" target=_blank>shared photos on social media</a> Thursday afternoon of a middle school in the town of Lucama, 50 miles east of Raleigh, that was badly damaged by a tornado caused by Debby. The photos showed one wall of a brick building entirely torn off, the building’s contents hanging out.

Cooper urged North Carolina residents to continue exercising caution as the storm passed. Debby caused <a href="https://governor.nc.gov/news/press-releases/2024/08/08/tropical-storm-debby-continues-bring-heavy-rain-and-flooding-across-nc" target="_blank">one fatality</a> in the state, and has continued to batter the region with heavy rain and flooding.

A <a href="https://forecast.weather.gov/showsigwx.php?warnzone=DCZ001&amp;warncounty=DCC001&amp;firewxzone=DCZ001&amp;local_place1=Washington%20DC&amp;product1=Flood+Watch&amp;lat=38.895&amp;lon=-77.0373" target="_blank">flood watch</a> previously in effect only for Washington’s western suburbs <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024/08/08/debby-dc-maryland-virginia-flooding-tornadoes/?itid=lk_inline_manual_21" target="_blank">has been expanded to cover much of the D.C. area</a> through Friday evening. “A widespread 2 to 4 inches of additional rainfall is expected,” the National Weather Service wrote. “Excessive runoff may result in flooding of rivers, creeks, streams, and other low-lying and flood-prone locations.”

Jason Samenow

(NHC)

Late Thursday afternoon, the National Hurricane Center announced that Debby had weakened from a tropical storm to a depression while sweeping across North Carolina. Even though its peak winds had dropped below 40 mph — the criteria to be considered a tropical storm — the Hurricane Center wrote that Debby remained a “major flood threat.”

The depression was also producing tornadoes Thursday. Two have been reported in North Carolina’s Franklin County, near the border with Virginia, since the morning. A <a href="https://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/watch/ww0614.html" target=_blank>tornado watch</a> was in effect for northeastern North Carolina and southeastern and central Virginia until 8 p.m.

Shortly before 5 p.m., weather radar showed areas of very heavy rain in western North Carolina extending into southwestern, south-central and central Virginia. Flash flood warnings were in effect through Charlotte and Greensboro in North Carolina and just to the east of Roanoke in Virginia, including Lynchburg and Danville.

Debby is forecast to pick up speed as it heads north Thursday night into Friday, producing extremely heavy rain to the west and north of its path.

“Heavy rainfall will also result in considerable to locally catastrophic flooding impacts across portions of the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeast through Saturday morning,” the Hurricane Center wrote.

Some of the heaviest rain is expected to fall in the Blue Ridge and Appalachian mountains on Thursday night, where there is a high risk of flash flooding. Rotating thunderstorms, capable of producing tornadoes, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024/08/08/debby-dc-maryland-virginia-flooding-tornadoes/?itid=lk_inline_manual_29" target="_blank">could affect the Washington and Baltimore region toward daybreak Friday</a>.

In addition to Debby, the National Hurricane Center is monitoring a system in the eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean. The system is a disorganized area of showers and thunderstorms, and only slow development is expected as it travels west through the central tropical Atlantic over the next few days.

By early next week, however, “conditions are expected to become more conducive for development … and a tropical depression could form while it approaches the Lesser Antilles,” the Hurricane Center said. The Lesser Antilles is the island chain that marks the divide between the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea. There’s a 40 percent chance the disturbance develops into a tropical depression, or thunderstorms rotating around a low-pressure center.

It’s too soon to reliably predict if the system will become a named tropical storm, which would require maximum sustained winds of at least 39 mph, or if it might threaten the United States. Forecasters are also tracking a couple of other <a href="https://x.com/MatthewCappucci/status/1821545897118908565" target=_blank>areas of interest</a> in the Atlantic.

The next named storm will be the fifth of this hurricane season. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued an <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024/08/08/debby-storm-floods-east-coast-forecast-updates/#link-DZD3VK5SNVFZRJW7TWMDJF2C3E?itid=lk_inline_manual_35" target=_blank>updated forecast</a> for the rest of the season Thursday, reaffirming its earlier forecast of near-record hurricane activity. The forecast calls for a total of 17 to 24 named storms, with eight to 13 of them becoming hurricanes, including those that have already formed this year.

Dan Stillman

As Debby’s remnant center bolts through the northeastern United States on Friday, much of the populated border region of adjacent Canada will experience heavy rain to the north of a warm front along its leading edge.

Rain will begin to envelop southeast Canada on Thursday night and will persist through Friday night.

Environment Canada has issued a <a href="https://weather.gc.ca/?center=47.73362346,-78.95233551&zoom=6" target=_blank>rainfall warning </a>from the northern shores of Lake Ontario around Peterborough to the border region with Maine. The warning includes Ottawa, Montreal, Sherbrooke and Quebec City.

The warning states that 50 to 100mm (2 to 4 inches) of rain is likely across the zone.

On the western edge of tropical moisture, Toronto is also expecting a period of heavy but less persistent rain into Friday, with 25 to 50mm (1 to 2 inches) expected. Similar totals are anticipated in Quebec to the north of the rainfall warning area.

Last month, <a href="https://x.com/BhatiaKieran/status/1821546454860853514" target="_blank">Montreal saw its wettest July day</a> on record on the 10th as the <a href="https://www.thesuburban.com/blogs/suburban_weather/the-remains-of-hurricane-beryl-produce-flash-flooding-in-the-montreal-region/article_6a97baae-3e5b-11ef-a6aa-8bd3eac60a36.html" target="_blank">remnants of Hurricane Beryl</a> passed by. Weather models suggest the potential for similar or even greater totals from this event.

The National Weather Service is highlighting a significant flood risk along and just to the east of the Appalachian and Blue Ridge Mountains from North Carolina to southwestern Pennsylvania. A general 4 to 8 inches of rain is expected, and up to 10 inches in localized areas, as Debby and its remnants move through Thursday afternoon into Friday.

There is a major to extreme flood threat for cities including Wilkesboro and Mount Airy in North Carolina; Blacksburg, Roanoke, Staunton, Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, Luray, Winchester and Front Royal in Virginia; Franklin, Petersburg and Romney in West Virginia; Cumberland, Md.; and Bedford, Pa.

“This rainfall will likely result in areas of considerable to locally catastrophic flash and urban flooding, especially in the terrain of western Virginia, with river flooding also possible,” the National Hurricane Center said.

(NWS)

Despite the ongoing severe to extreme drought along the Blue Ridge, “there have already been several rounds of precipitation in those areas over the last few days, moistening up the soils before the real remnants of Debby. It is best not to let our guard down given the potential considerable rainfall rates,” the Weather Service <a href="https://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=LWX&issuedby=LWX&product=AFD&format=CI&version=1&glossary=1&highlight=off" target=_blank>said</a>.

Not only is the core of Debby forecast to track from south to north directly over the mountains, but rising air due to persistent upslope winds from the east and southeast will probably lead to enhanced tropical downpours.

Rainfall rates of 1 to 2 inches per hour Thursday evening, and perhaps short bursts exceeding that rate overnight, could lead to “widespread flooding/flash flooding with some potentially major impacts due to high runoff capabilities along the Blue Ridge into the neighboring valleys,” the Weather Service <a href="https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/discussions/hpcdiscussions.php?disc=qpferd" target=_blank>added</a>.

Most of central North Carolina is under flash flood warnings Thursday afternoon as heavy rain bands from Debby sweep across the state. <a href="https://x.com/chuckcopelandwx/status/1821595629300126129" target=_blank>Dozens of road closures</a> have been reported, mainly because of high water.

At 2 p.m., Debby was centered 55 miles east-southeast of Charlotte, while moving to the north-northwest at 10 mph. The heaviest rain — with rates of up to 1 to 2 inches per hour — was mostly concentrated north and west of the storm center, <a href="https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/metwatch/metwatch_mpd_multi.php?md=834&yr=2024" target=_blank>according to</a> the National Weather Service.

Some of the heaviest rain through midday had occurred in the following areas:

New Bern, N.C., where nearly one inch fell in an hour early this afternoon and heavy storms were continuing.

Raleigh, where heavy rain brought more than 0.5 inches in one hour as storms passed by.

Spartanburg, S.C., where 0.72 inches fell in an hour and areas of heavy rain persisted.

Reports of flooding were numerous across central and southeast North Carolina as well as the border area of South Carolina. Water over roads and overflowing creeks and streams were observed around Raleigh, while the Charlotte area also witnessed numerous roads submerged and water entering houses.

Heavy rain and flooding are poised to spread northward to cover more of Virginia through the afternoon. Some of the heaviest bands of rain have expanded into southern Virginia; some of them were rotating prompting tornado warnings in the Virginia Tidewater area.

There are more than 143,000 customers without power after Tropical Storm Debby’s second landfall, with most of the outages concentrated in North Carolina, and others in South Carolina and Florida, according to <a href="https://poweroutage.us/" target=_blank>PowerOutage.us.</a>

Duke Energy, a utility supplying electricity to residents in the Carolinas, <a href="https://x.com/DukeEnergy/status/1821277296239501630" target=_blank>said</a> it had prepared ahead of Debby’s second landfall, with more than 7,500 workers available to respond to the storm as it moves through the Carolinas.

Most of the residents without power today are Duke Energy customers, according to PowerOutage.us.

As of 1 p.m., more than 20,000 residents are without power in North Carolina’s Mecklenburg County, home to Charlotte; over 12,000 people are without power in Guilford County; more than 7,000 are without power in Forsyth County; and more than 7,100 residents are without power in Orange County, which is home to Hillsborough.

An additional 12,800 customers are without power in South Carolina. The figure adds to the growing number of residents who have been out of power since Tuesday. On Tuesday, more than 9,000 customers in South Carolina were without power as the storm moved deeper into the state, inundating the region with rain.

Nearly 11,000 customers are still without electricity in Florida, where the initial landfall occurred this week.

Amudalat Ajasa

Hurricane Debby hits South Carolina, Myrtle Beach, USA - 07 Aug 2024

A forecast of seasonal hurricane activity issued Thursday maintains predictions that a near-record number of major storms is possible in the coming months.

Reaffirming a forecast issued before the start of this year’s Atlantic hurricane season, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it expects 4 to 7 major hurricanes this year from as many as 13 hurricanes. Those totals include Beryl, which was the earliest storm on record to gain Category 5 strength, and Debby, which was a low-end Category 1 hurricane when it made landfall in Florida this week.

The forecast slightly downgraded expectations for the total number of storms expected to warrant names, which are given to any tropical cyclone with maximum sustained winds of at least 39 mph. NOAA predicts 17 to 24 named storms, down slightly from a May prediction of 17 to 25 named storms.

After Beryl dissipated in early July, there was a lull in tropical cyclone activity that lasted several weeks.

Nonetheless, the hurricane season could rank among the busiest on record, NOAA said. Many Atlantic hurricane season records date to 2005, when there were 28 named storms, smashing a record of 21 set in 1933; 15 hurricanes, three more than the previous record set in 1969; and four Category 5 storms, twice as many as had ever occurred before in a single season.

The forecast update “is an important reminder that the peak of hurricane season is right around the corner, when historically the most significant impacts from hurricanes and tropical storms tend to occur,” NOAA administrator Rick Spinrad said in a statement. The season is historically busiest in the second half of August and first half of September.

Scott Dance

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024/08/08/debby-storm-floods-east-coast-forecast-updates/?itid=lk_inline_manual_2&itid=lk_inline_manual_80" target=_blank>Debby made a second landfall overnight in South Carolina</a> on its way toward a rendezvous with the D.C. area Thursday into Friday.

About 1.5 to 3 inches of rain is forecast locally, with up to 5 to 10 inches on the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge and Appalachian mountains. This comes on top of many locations picking up half an inch to 2 inches or so since Wednesday.

A tornado threat — that was focused in eastern North Carolina and southeast Virginia Thursday morning — will also shift north Thursday afternoon through Friday morning. Our area could find itself in a favorable region for twister development late Thursday night into early Friday afternoon.

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024/08/08/debby-dc-maryland-virginia-flooding-tornadoes/?itid=lk_inline_manual_83" target="_blank">Read the full story.</a>

Severe flooding has already struck portions of Vermont twice this summer. Now, more flooding is possible as the remnants of Debby move through Friday night, which would mark the state’s fourth significant flooding event in the past two years.

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024/07/30/flood-emergency-vermont-johnsbury-record/?itid=lk_inline_manual_87" target=_blank>Early last week</a>, northeast Vermont was deluged with as much as eight inches of rain in just six hours. Flooding washed away homes and roads and submerged cars underwater, according to the National Weather Service.

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024/07/11/vermont-flooding-damage-beryl-remants/?itid=lk_inline_manual_88" target="_blank">Last month</a>, it was the remnants of Hurricane Beryl that slammed portions of northern Vermont with heavy rain and destructive flooding. Many locations recorded three to six inches of rain in less than 12 hours, with a few places exceeding seven inches. The flooding collapsed roads and destroyed homes and an apartment building, exactly one year after <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/07/11/vermont-flooding-cause/?itid=lk_inline_manual_88" target="_blank">historic flooding</a> hit the same region.

Rain from the remnants of Debby is predicted to come in two rounds — Thursday afternoon and night, and then Friday afternoon and night. The heaviest rainfall, as much as two to four inches, is expected across the northern and western parts of the state. The fast speed of the system should somewhat limit the intensity and duration of any flooding.

“However, given the antecedent wet conditions and potential for Debby’s track to shift eastward, our entire forecast area remains in a moderate risk” of flooding, the National Weather Service in Burlington said.

Satellite view of Debby Thursday morning. (NOAA)

At 11 a.m., Debby was centered 80 miles southeast of Charlotte and was moving to the northwest at 10 mph — a substantial increase in speed from Wednesday when it was crawling at just 3 mph. The storm’s peak winds were 40 mph and are expected to weaken. The National Hurricane Center says Debby will be downgraded from a tropical storm to a tropical depression by this afternoon or evening.

But the downgrade will have no bearing on its potential to produce serious flooding in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. “By far, the most significant threat with Debby continues to be flash flooding from heavy rainfall,” the Hurricane Center wrote.

In fact, the Hurricane Center said “considerable to locally catastrophic flooding” is possible through Saturday morning. Concern is high along the eastern slopes of the Appalachian Mountains, where rain will be especially intense. Higher terrain along the corridor between west central North Carolina and northern Vermont, including the Blue Ridge Mountains in central Virginia, is particularly vulnerable.

While Debby’s torrential rains brought widespread flooding worries, tornadoes spawned by the storm caused at least one fatality and damaged numerous homes and a middle school in eastern North Carolina on Thursday morning.

A spokesman for Wilson County confirmed that a search and rescue team had located the body of a person inside a two-story home that collapsed in Lucama, about an hour east of Raleigh, the state capital.

A number of other homes in the area reportedly were damaged during a tornado that touched down in the community in the early-morning hours.

Wilson County Schools also confirmed that a tornado caused extensive damage to Springfield Middle School in Lucama.

In a statement, Superintendent Lane Mills said the worst damage was centered on sixth- and seventh-grade halls where “sections of the roof and walls are missing or compromised.”

No students or staff were in the building at the time.

Mills said the full extent of the damage remains unclear, but seeing the destruction up close was “heartbreaking.”

The National Weather Service in Raleigh issued numerous tornado warnings across multiple counties Thursday.

Brady Dennis

Satellite video from Thursday shows Tropical Storm Debby moving north along the East Coast.

Tropical storm Debby creeps up East Coast

John Farrell

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Amid the latest impacts from Tropical Storm Debby, longtime residents felt the familiar toll of what heavy rainfall can do to this low-lying city.

In the 85 years that Victoria Milligan has lived in her East Charleston home, she has watched the garden outside her porch flood and recede more times than she can remember.

“Flooding is some of the hardest stuff you deal with living here,” said Milligan on Wednesday as rain from Debby pattered steadily on the roof of her orange house. Milligan, 89, added that she has noticed that roads nearby flood more frequently than they used to.

A few blocks away, as the rain stopped and the storm crept to the northeast, workers in bright yellow vests and rubber boots moved through water up to their knees unclogging street drains with large shovels.

“We have to do something about this,” said Joe Watson, who has lived in Charleston for more than 60 years.

He remembers preparing for hurricanes as a young man and watching the waters rise in his neighborhood.

Those same streets flood regularly now, Watson said.

Ruby Mellen

As rain bands from Tropical Storm Debby have spiraled into eastern North Carolina, they have produced multiple tornadoes since late Wednesday. More twisters are possible Thursday, both in eastern North Carolina as well as Southeast Virginia.

A tornado watch is in effect for areas between roughly Fayetteville, N.C., and Williamsburg, Va., until 1 p.m. The National Weather Service says “a few” tornadoes are possible in this zone.

The Weather Service has received three tornado reports in eastern North Carolina since Wednesday:

Near Harrells — between Wilmington and Fayetteville — two homes were reportedly damaged by a confirmed tornado at 2:19 p.m. Wednesday.

Near Maple Hill — between Wilmington and Jacksonville — there was a report of debris on Highway 23 from a twister at 2:43 p.m. Wednesday.

Near Lucama — about 35 miles east-southeast of Raleigh near Interstate 95 — several homes were reported damaged or destroyed at 2:52 a.m. Thursday, and there was one reported fatality. There was also “extensive damage” reported at Springfield Middle School.

The tornado risk <a href="https://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/day1otlk.html" target=_blank>will shift north toward Central Virginia</a> later Thursday. Then, Thursday night into Friday, <a href="https://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/day2otlk.html" target=_blank>the risk will progress farther north</a> into the eastern part of the D.C., area, Delmarva, eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and southern New York.

Debby made a second landfall early Thursday as a tropical storm, along the central coast of South Carolina. The center is tracking northwest through the state at around 5 mph but will accelerate while turning north then more northeast through the day.

The Weather Service has placed a large zone of Level 4 of 4 “high risk” for flooding Thursday into Friday from near Wilmington to Raleigh in North Carolina, then toward Roanoke and northward along the eastern edge of the Appalachians.

A level 3 out of 4 “moderate risk” for flooding surrounds that zone and continues north to the border with Canada. Cities in the Level 3 of 4 include Charlotte; Winchester, Va.; State College, Pa.; Syracuse, N.Y.; and Burlington, Vt.

Flood watch coverage is similar, running from South Carolina to the international border.

A range of 6 to 10 inches of rain may fall in much of the Level 4 of 4 area,  and some locations could pick up more.

The heaviest rain and highest flood potential should mainly be south of the Mason-Dixon Line Thursday, then north into Pennsylvania, New York and New England into the night and Friday.

Totals should be the greatest in the higher terrain where moist air moving upward will be wrung out to its full potential. East-facing slopes of the Blue Ridge and Appalachian chain should be particularly vulnerable to flooding, despite much of the region going into the storm with significant levels of drought. Up to 6 to 10 inches of rain could fall in a short time.

Level 4 of 4 flood threat days account for less than 5 percent of days, but make up nearly half of flood-related fatalities and about 80 percent of flood-related damage.

As floodwaters began to recede in communities along Florida’s Gulf Coast, residents in North Florida were bracing for rising rivers as rainfall from Tropical Storm Debby continues to affect the region.

More than two dozen people had to be rescued by Florida Fish and Wildlife officers from high water in Suwannee County in North Florida after Debby passed, including four people and their pets who had climbed onto the roof of a barn to escape the high water and a man who was stranded on top of his car, according to the agency.

Residents in Manatee, Sarasota and Hillsborough counties were still waiting Wednesday for floodwaters to recede, more than two days after feeder bands from Debby dropped record rainfall of 20 inches or more in some areas.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) visited a waterfront oyster bar in Sarasota on Wednesday where the owners were working to reopen this week.

DeSantis said Debby’s rainfall in Georgia is still flowing south into north Florida’s already swollen waterways.

“There will definitely be pockets around the state where you’re going to have folks in lower-lying areas, or some that are near bodies of water, that may have issues still coming up in a few days,” he said.

Lori Rozsa

Tropical Storm Debby continues to trek inland after making a second landfall in South Carolina. At 8 a.m., the center was near Florence, or about 65 miles west-northwest of Myrtle Beach, and had sustained winds of 45 mph. Debby is moving slowly but beginning to accelerate as it starts to interact with an incoming cold front.

Tropical storm warnings remain in effect from south of Myrtle Beach to the southern Outer Banks of North Carolina. The storm will weaken as it heads northward into and through North Carolina on Thursday.

Debby’s worst rainfall is in North Carolina early Thursday. Flash-flood warnings cover much of the central portion of that state, including Raleigh and Charlotte, and through the border area of South Carolina. Bladenboro, not far from the southern border, was under a flash-flood emergency earlier in the day, with major flooding reported in town.

Bands of rain and storms rotating around Debby’s center are causing rainfall rates of 1 to 2 inches an hour, especially in North Carolina. A larger shield of off-and-on precipitation covers much of the Carolinas into southern Virginia, moving north. Outside the heaviest bands, rainfall rates are about a quarter- to a half-inch per hour.

From 4 to 6 inches of rain is expected Thursday in much of North Carolina east of Charlotte and also northward into west-central Virginia through Pennsylvania heading into Friday. Amounts of 6 to 10 inches are more likely in the mountains, with some spots of higher rainfall.

A tornado watch is also in effect through early afternoon in eastern North Carolina and southeastern Virginia. <a href="https://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/reports/today.html" target=_blank>A number of tornadoes</a> occurred overnight, including one that damaged homes near Wilson, to the east of Raleigh, N.C.

Additional tornado watches are a good bet today, probably including areas farther north in the Mid-Atlantic.

A big chunk of the coastal region from around the Georgia-South Carolina border into southeast North Carolina has picked up 5 to 10 inches from Debby so far, with up to a foot or 1½ feet in spots. This is in addition to the similarly high totals running up and down Florida’s west coast then turning northeastward into north Florida and southern Georgia.

Another zone of enhanced rainfall has focused on the northern to central Mid-Atlantic as a cold front expected to eventually merge with Debby’s remnants sinks south and interacts with tropical moisture.

Top reliable totals by state from Debby,<a href="https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/discussions/nfdscc4.html" target=_blank> as reported</a> by the Weather Prediction Center, include:

The South Carolina total above is about six inches off the state record from a tropical cyclone, with more to come.

On Wednesday, south of the border in Georgia, the Canoochee River near Claxton <a href="https://www.wjcl.com/article/tracking-debby-canoochee-river-flooding/61819777" target="_blank">broke a 100-year record</a> for a crest at 18 feet. Flooding has also been <a href="https://www.weather.gov/source/crh/lsrmap.html" target="_blank">common from around Savannah, Ga., to Wilmington, N.C., </a>along the Southeast Coast, coming on the heels of historic flooding farther south for places like Sarasota, Fla.

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024/08/03/hurricane-debby-tracker-map/?itid=lk_inline_manual_161" target=_blank>Click here</a> for a map of Debby’s projected storm path.

Nick Kirkpatrick

Dylan Moriarty

Szu Yu  Chen

National Weather Association, Digital Seal of Approval

University of Virginia, BA in environmental science, 1998

University of Wisconsin, MS in atmospheric science, 2000

Jason Samenow is The Washington Post’s weather editor and Capital Weather Gang's chief meteorologist. He earned a master's degree in atmospheric science and spent 10 years as a climate change science analyst for the U.S. government. He holds the Digital Seal of Approval from the National Weather Association.

Ian Livingston is a forecaster/photographer and information lead for the Capital Weather Gang. By day, Ian is a defense and national security researcher at a D.C. think tank.

Pulitzer Prize finalist for breaking news, 2016

First place for outstanding beat reporting, Society of Environmental Journalists, 2023

University of Maryland at College Park, BA in Journalism

University of Maryland at College Park, Master's of Public Policy

Scott Dance is a reporter for The Washington Post covering extreme weather news and the intersections between weather, climate, society and the environment. He joined The Post in 2022 after more than a decade at the Baltimore Sun.

Debby, no longer a tropical storm, will still bring more flood and tornado risks

Live coverage contributors 15