BLOWING ROCK, N.C. — Hurricane Helene's impact is already being felt as of Wednesday in the North Carolina mountains. The storm hasn't even made landfall yet - that's expected to happen Thursday along Florida's panhandle - but its outer bands helped to form a funnel cloud in the town of Blowing Rock.
Tyler Penland shared the video of the funnel cloud with us. At the end of the video, you can even see what appears to be the spark of a transformer.
This is already unwelcome weather for our mountains. Helene will be right over western North Carolina come Friday morning into Friday afternoon - so it only increases the flooding risk there.
Gov. Roy Cooper has issued a state of emergency for North Carolina in anticipation of the storm.