Camden County Under Severe Thunderstorm Watch Until 10 P.M.

Camden County is under a severe thunderstorm watch from 2:30 p.m. until 10 p.m. Thursday, a seven-and-a-half-hour window covering the evening commute and dinner hour.

Severe Thunderstorm Watch includes Bertie, Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Gates, Hertford, Northampton, Pasquotank and Perquimans counties. The watch area extends north into southeastern Virginia, including Norfolk, Chesapeake, and Suffolk, VA.

A watch is not a warning. It means conditions favor severe storms forming, and the National Weather Service wants residents near a source of updates. A warning means take cover now.

Camden has already drawn two warnings today.

The afternoon so far

The first severe thunderstorm warning ran from 1:27 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. across Camden, Pasquotank, Gates, Chowan, Perquimans and western Currituck.

The Storm Prediction Center issued the watch fifteen minutes later, at 2:30 p.m., a signal that forecasters expected more rounds rather than one passing line.

They were right. A second warning followed and ran until 4 p.m., adding Bertie and Hertford counties plus Chesapeake and Suffolk, with 60 mph wind gusts and penny-size hail. Radar tracked that line from near Roduco in Gates County to near Roxobel in Bertie County, moving northeast at 30 mph.

What happens next

Both warnings have expired. The watch has not, and new warnings can be issued for Camden County any time before 10 p.m.

Radar showed storms still west and southwest of Elizabeth City when the second warning lapsed, with more cells building over Chesapeake and Virginia Beach.

No injuries or damage had been confirmed in Camden County as of 4:30 p.m. The Tribune has not yet reached Camden County Emergency Management.

Drivers on U.S. 158 and N.C. 343 should expect standing water and reduced visibility in the heaviest cells. Treat any downed line as live and report it to the utility.