"The severe threat is over," but cold front bringing frigid overnight temps to central NC

We've been waiting all weekend for those words, uttered by meteorologist Zach Maloch Sunday evening.

A cold front is rolling in and with it arrives dry weather and much cooler temperatures. For more on this, head to the bottom of this story.

For now, let's recap a wild weekend of weather.

Some eastern counties were hit hard as severe storms rolled through in the afternoon. Power outages, sizable hail, downed trees and heavy wind shook parts of eastern NC, including Nash County.

The winds, rain and hail were so powerful, they feared a tornado may be approaching. Fortunately, the tree just barely missed severely damaging their home, which they just bought a few months ago. No one was injured.

WRAL Meteorologist Zach Maloch said this system isn't looking as threatening as previously thought, a good thing since the Triangle's dealt with plenty in the past three days.

"The atmosphere was turned over and stabilized quite a bit with this afternoon's thunderstorms and that may be one of the reasons why this line is not as strong here," Maloch said.

An early cluster of storms made its way through the area in the morning and afternoon. They weren't severe, but were packing a punch around 6 a.m. Viewers reported hail in Nashville and Moore County.

Severe storms moved across central NC on Saturday afternoon, spawning tornado warnings, pea-sized hail, power outages and lightning strikes.

The main threat was damaging wind gusts, which reached up to 60 mph. Pea-sized hail was seen falling in High Point, Durham, Chapel Hill and Raleigh. The heavy rain caused "white out conditions," forcing drivers to be cautious on the roads.

On Saturday afternoon, around 1,000 customers were without power in the Triangle area.

People impacted by the passing storms shared photos of hail that fell in multiple counties around cental NC. A sizable amount of hail was shown on a highway near Greensboro.

The incoming cold front will drop overnight temperatures into the 40s throughout the state, and even into the upper 30s in our northern counties. By Monday afternoon, temperatures should reach the mid 60s.

Temperatures will hover around 70 degrees for Tuesday and Wednesday, then drop again, this time into the 50s, as we head into next weekend.