Alamance County under thunderstorm watch

While a tornado watch for central North Carolina has expired, the National Weather Service in Raleigh has issued a severe thunderstorm watch as a storm system pushes east across the region.

 The watch, which includes Alamance, Caswell, Chatham, Orange and Randolph counties, is in effect until 11 p.m. The service said the storms can cause wind gusts of over 60 mph and produce hail to the size of pennies and nickles.

According to the Associated Press,winds already blew down trees and limbs that knocked out power to 985 Progress Energy customers in western North Carolina, the utility said. Duke Energy reported 732 outages in North Carolina.