CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A natural gas odor was reported all across Charlotte Thursday morning, with residents in NoDa, Uptown and South End all complaining about a rotten eggs smell.
Shortly after 11 a.m., Piedmont Natural Gas confirmed the smell wasn't a gas leak, but a leak of the smell additive mercaptan. Mercaptan is a pungent gas that is added to natural gas to give it an odor so it's easier to detect in the case of a leak. Piedmont Natural Gas said the widespread odor stemmed from the destruction of mercaptan tanks by a company in Charlotte. No further information was provided regarding the destruction of the tanks.
Charlotte city officials received so many 911 calls Thursday that an emergency alert was issued to cellphones in the area advising people to not report the smell.
Chief meteorologist Brad Panovich confirmed the odor was exaggerated by a weather event called an inversion, which is when a layer of warm, dense air traps everything underneath it, including pollution, smoke, fog, and smell. That would also include natural gas, which is lighter than air and is naturally odorless.
Piedmont Natural Gas said no natural gas leaks have been detected in their system.
Mercaptan does not pose a danger to the community or require evacuation, according to Piedmont Natural Gas.
The smell was reported in NoDa, Uptown and South End, among other parts of the city. Multiple buildings in Uptown Charlotte were evacuated due to the possibility of a gas leak. Wells Fargo notified employees that they would be allowed to work from home for the remainder of the day Thursday.
City officials received so many calls about the smell that an emergency alert was issued to cellphones in the Charlotte area asking people to not call 911. Novant Health said it temporarily paused operations at Presbyterian Hospital due to concerns of the smell.
This isn't the first time it's happened. In February 2021, chief meteorologist Brad Panovich explained how an inversion traps those odors close to the ground.
"The odor is exaggerated by a strong low-level temperature inversion," Panovich tweeted Thursday. "It's a warm layer of air just off the surface that traps things below it."
"While you should always be wary of gas leaks, there are certain atmospheric setups that cause this smell to be more pronounced," Panovich wrote. "There is a situation where this is normal and not a danger."
An inversion is when a warm layer of air just above the surface traps many things below it, like pollution, sound, fog, smoke, and even natural gas.
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