Climate Change News: Tropical Storm Chantal and Pop-Up Severe Weather
The 2025 Atlantic hurricane season began June 1st and will persist until November 1st; so far the weather has been menacing in the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina. On July 4th, Tropical Storm Chantal developed east of Jacksonville, Florida midafternoon and then moved north, making landfall in South Carolina on July 6, 2025. The storm appeared to hover over the Carolinas, releasing a tremendous amount of rainfall on the state. Chantal was the third named storm of this year’s hurricane season.
In the days following the aftermath of the storm impact, another severe storm cell appeared over the NC Piedmont Region, resulting in serious flash flooding incidents in Orange, Alamance, Lee, Chatham, Moore, and Guilford counties. The Deep River reached the Action Flood Alert level in Randolph County and breached the Moderate Flood Alert level in Moore, Chatham and Lee counties, due to the already high water levels following Chantal, during this second severe storm. USGS river gauges in Ramseur, NC (Randolph County) showed the Deep River at 8.79 ft on July 10th and in Moncure, NC (Lee County) peaked at 14.12 ft on July 7th; four more feet in Lee County would have been considered a Major Flood Alert and could have resulted in serious destruction to homes, vehicles, businesses, infrastructure, and human safety.
Going forward into hurricane season 2025, Deep River Riverkeeper (DRRK) wants to work collaboratively with local meteorologists, EMS, Waterkeeper Carolina, municipalities, utilities, and community members to strengthen the ability to preemptively act to protect and inform the public on flash flooding. On July 8th, Deep River Riverkeeper Stephanie Stephens followed up at known sites that flooded within the Deep River subbasins to sample for elevated E.coli levels.
Sites Sampled on July 11th, 2025:
Unnamed creek at Rotary Club Drive and Ray Avenue (High Point)
Richland Creek at Ward Avenue and Green Street (High Point)
Deep River at Wade Avenue (Jamestown)
Bull Run at Deep River Confluence (Jamestown)
Deep River Access Site (Chatham County)
15/501 Access Site (Lee County)
Every site sampled, with the exception of Richland Creek, resulted in high levels of E.coli contamination of over 1,200 cfu/100 mL. Urban areas near sewer systems could have been contaminated by sewer overflow, considering the already elevated water levels were worsened by the second severe storm thread after Tropical Storm Chantal. In the more rural areas and receiving waters downstream, the high levels were most likely a combination of land application runoff and stormwater runoff from upstream with many contributing factors both urban and rural.
Climate change is as evident as ever this summer in North Carolina. Increasing heat intensity combined with our geographic location, between the Atlantic Ocean and the Appalachian Mountains,are causing existing storms to intensify and easily develop over the Piedmont Region. Rising global temperatures are causing more atmospheric moisture, leading to heavier rainfall and more frequent severe storm events. DRRK is advocating for more river and creek gauges in our subbasins and a newly revised, more solid flood plan per county our river flows through. Additionally, DRRK plans to hold workshops in the future on flash flooding with the community to increase awareness and preparedness, if there is a catastrophic event in our watershed.
