Western NC Afternoon Thunderstorm | 08/14/26 | Mills River, NC

Timestamps are below! On August 14th, 2026, a level 1 marginal risk was outlined for a large swath of North Carolina and upstate South Carolina, with a slight risk issued further north. Thunderstorms began to fire in the early afternoon and progress through late afternoon, diminishing by the evening. This storm was on the stronger side, but was small in size and didn’t last very long. After it blew through it fell into nothing. I originally went out to record a thunderstorm that was coming in from Transylvania County, which had a special weather statement on it. It was initially moving east towards me and shifted southeast, falling apart soon after as it drifted north of Hendersonville. This is the storm you see at the beginning of the video. Out of nowhere a new thunderstorm popped up from the dark clouds to the right of the church shown at the beginning (my northwest) and progressed towards me and really got going once at reached the base of the nearby mountains. I believe it originated from the Mount Pisgah area. While I’m pretty sure I didn’t get the core of it, I got well into the storm, and it put on a good show. There wasn’t an extraordinary amount of lightning but the strikes it did put out were pretty close and vivid. There were also some gusty winds present as well, probably around 40 mph tops. I filmed this at the Mt. Gilead Baptist Church about 5-10 minutes away from my house. As always, thanks for watching and there is more to come. Quality for this video was modified using CapCut. Timestamps: 00:00 Video starts with approaching storms and rain beginning to fall 12:50 Rain begins to pick up as newly forming thunderstorm slowly begins to develop 18:00 New thunderstorm begins its prime development, the blue sky under the dark clouds will soon disappear 21:00 Thunderstorm has now fully developed 22:21 Close strike, bolt visible 23:05 Winds begin to pick up slightly and rain gets heavier 24:51 VERY close strike, no flash or bolt visible, I saw the bolt in person behind the tan building to the left of the bus 26:00 High winds begin 27:44 Moderately close strike, flash visible 29:22 Close strike, flash visible 30:20 Rain lightens up a bit but breezy conditions continue 33:30 Winds have mostly died down, steady rain continues to the end