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A deadly storm tore through the Triangle Tuesday night, causing flooding, power outages, bringing down trees and killing one person.
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Power was out still for some North Raleigh residents on Wednesday morning, after a supercell thunderstorm moved through the Triangle dumping more than 2 inches of rain on some parts of the area.
“Supercells are the strongest (thunderstorms) that we experience, and they can produce all hazards of severe weather, hail, damaging winds and tornadoes,” said Michael Strickler, meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Raleigh Office.
A tree fell on a home in the 5150 block of Bartons Enclave Lane just after 10 p.m., trapping and killing an adult man, according to the Wake County Sheriff’s Office. Two other people were inside the home when the tree fell but weren’t injured.
Between 8 p.m. Tuesday to 7 a.m. Wednesday, the Raleigh Police Department reported the following:
Some roads were closed early morning Wednesday, July 29, including Millbrook at Farley Drive near Six Forks Road due to power line down; Pinecrest Road at Like Oak Trail due to a tree on the road; and Ray Road between Strickland Road and Lynn Road due to downed power lines, according to the Raleigh Police Department.
At the storm’s peak, there were 40,000 Duke Energy customers in Wake County without power, according to Jeff Brooks, spokesperson for Duke Energy. A transmission tower in the North Hills area came down and caused power outage for about 5,000 customers.
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As of 1 p.m. there are 2,000 customers over 65 outages in Wake County still needing repair, he said.
A Raleigh Fire truck from Station 23 was hit by a tree on Pinecrest Road, causing minor damage, but it didn’t delay responding to the call, said Julia Milstead, public information officer with the city.
For folks able to avoid the worst of the weather, last night’s storms offered “one of the most spectacular lightning shows” in recent years, Strickler said.
“It’s what we call anvil crawlers,” he said. “At least from our vantage point in southern Wake County, we couldn’t see any cloud-to-ground strikes, but the streaks from cloud-to-cloud or intra-cloud emanating away from the parent storm and just streaking across the sky horizontally, that’s what we call anvil crawlers, and those were truly prolific last night.”
Most storms this time of year have short-life cycle and stay in one place, but last night’s supercell storm lasted for hours, moving across central North Carolina, and stronger than other storms. Those were some of the factors that caused more lightning during last’s night storms.
“It was one of the most spectacular lightning shows I can remember in years,” Strickler said.
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This story was originally published July 29, 2026 at 10:59 AM.