Severe storms stay to west of Triangle

"Right now we're not worrying about severe weather across central North Carolina because everything we're seeing is just light to moderate showers," she said.

Some areas may hear thunder overnight, Deaner said. “Some places will see heavy rain, but it will be brief.”

The forecast is more ominous to the west, where a tornado watch was in effect until 3 a.m. for Cherokee and Clay counties. Storms moved across the deep South Saturday and edged into the central and southwestern mountains of North Carolina and far west Virginia.

The National Weather Service said 10 people died and dozens of home and businesses were damaged across a swath of west-central Mississippi Saturday. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour says a tornado caused "utter obliteration" to parts of a rural Yazoo County.

In Tennessee, hail and heavy downpours caused marathon runners to take cover in Nashville and power outages in Memphis.

Temperatures in the Triangle were forecast to hold in the 60s overnight, with some clearing coming by afternoon. Humidity and mercury will climb Sunday into the low 80s, making conditions ripe for a scattering of strong or severe storms, Deaner said.

The wind will pick up by late afternoon, gusting up to 35 mph, she said.

"The biggest threats would be damaging winds in a couple of spots and perhaps some large hail here and there," WRAL meteorologist Mike Moss said.