Salisbury residents can expect it to keep on raining, the National Weather Service reports. A mix of showers and thunderstorms are predicted through tonight.
The rainy weather comes in during the last week of school, disrupting end-of-year celebrations and threatening graduation ceremonies.
Despite a wet Wednesday, Koontz Elementary still held Field Day. Inside, kids had scooter relays in the hallways, dance competitions in the gym and an improvised bowling alley in the cafeteria.
“We use every little inch of inside room that we can,” Coach Craig Johnson said.
While he believed the kids would have had more fun outside, Johnson still thought they enjoyed the day.
“I think if you get kids playing they’ll enjoy most anything,” he said.
Overton Elementary, too, held its field day Wednesday. Kids went to the J.F. Hurley YMCA and, undaunted by the wet, spent part of the afternoon on the outdoor splash zone.
Although skies cleared Wednesday afternoon, storm-related damage caused 1,100 local Duke Energy customers to lose electricity earlier in the day. The outage included many homes and businesses on Fulton Street. Traffic signals were out, too.
On Friday, there is still a high chance of rain, but no heavy rainfall or widespread flooding is predicted, said National Weather Service meteorologist Bryan McAvoy, based in Greer, S.C.
Saturday, however, is up in the air.
“At this point there’s a lot of uncertainty,” McAvoy said.
A lot depends on an area of low pressure in the Gulf of Mexico that may morph into a tropical or subtropical depression late tonight. The depression is expected to cross the Florida peninsula and head up the coast, affecting weather along the way.
If it does, the Interstate 77 corridor can expect heavy rainfall Friday and Saturday, McAvoy said. In the meantime, the low pressure area is indirectly affecting Salisbury’s forecast, providing lots of moist air — which means rain, humidity and cool and cloudy weather.
After Saturday, it should dry out and brighten up. But will the weather change in time for West Rowan’s graduation?
West is the only high school in Rowan County that holds an outdoor graduation, and a lot is riding on clear skies for its 8 a.m. ceremony on Saturday. Should it rain, school officials say that commencement will move to the school’s auditorium.
This means that graduating seniors will be forced to pick and choose who they invite to the ceremony. If the graduation is held outside, each student is allowed to invite 10 people. If it rains, the auditorium can only host two or three guests per student.
School officials say that now it is just a waiting game.
Rebecca Rider is a Catawba College senior and an intern at the Salisbury Post.