Chantal triggers life-threatening flash floods as storm pushes inland in North Carolina and Virginia
Now a Tropical Depression, Chantal became the first named storm of the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season to hit the United States after it made landfall in South Carolina in the earliest hours of Sunday morning.
'At 811 PM EDT, emergency management reported flooding due to thunderstorms producing heavy rain in numerous locations across the warned area, including Pittsboro, Chapel Hill, and Mebane,' the National Weather Service said in an alert Sunday night.
'Between 2 and 6 inches of rain have fallen. Additional rainfall amounts of 1 to 3 inches are possible in the warned area,' the weather service said. 'Flash flooding is already occurring.'
Chantal came ashore around 4 a.m. ET Sunday near Litchfield by the Sea, South Carolina, according to the National Hurricane Center, about 10 to 20 miles south of Myrtle Beach. The tropical storm was packing sustained winds between 50 and 60 mph at landfall, with stronger gusts.
Chantal is the third named storm of the Atlantic season — a mark usually hit around early August. While Chantal is the first of the season to impact the United States, it isn't a major threat to land, but will continue to drench parts of the Southeast and create risky beach conditions through Monday.
The system deteriorated into a tropical depression late Sunday morning as it tracked deeper inland and farther north. Chantal could fully dissipate as early as Sunday evening, but some impacts will linger after that occurs.
Despite Chantal's loss of tropical storm status, the system will still bring periods of heavy rain to the Carolinas and other parts of the mid-Atlantic. A level 2-of-4 risk of flooding rainfall is in place for portions of the Carolinas Sunday, according to the Weather Prediction Center. This rain will spread farther north early in the week.
Chantal has dropped at least an inch of rain on parts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina since it first formed and ultimately, 2 to 4 inches of rain is possible in the Carolinas, with isolated amounts of up to 6 inches through Monday.
Rough surf and rip currents will continue to plague much of the Carolina coastline and areas farther north through at least Monday.
Outside of the Southeast, most of the country is having ideal conditions for July Fourth weekend, particularly in the Northeast and West, where calm, mostly clear skies are expected. The Southeast is likely to dry out by Tuesday.
Texas and the Upper Midwest could continue to see strong to severe thunderstorms with damaging winds and hail through the weekend. Torrential rainfall triggered deadly flooding in Texas early Friday morning as rivers rushed beyond their banks and flooded nearby campgrounds and homes.
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