Tropical Storm Chantal might have had the perfect recipe for catching people unawares: It formed rapidly (only reaching tropical storm status on Saturday) over a holiday weekend and moved slowly while dropping torrential rain.

T ropical Storm Chantal (shahn-TAHL) was the first tropical storm to make landfall and the third named storm of the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season. The storm will be remembered for bringing tropical rain inland causing flooding in the eastern Triad and prompting tornado warnings in Alamance county.

Dozens of residents needed to be rescued from rising water, and hundreds of roads were closed as the storm moved over the central part of North Carolina.