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Farmers Felt Floyd’s Full Force, Beginning in Onslow County

Climate Blog

Nov 6, 2019

The Heat Backed Off and Rain Picked Up in October

October began with hundred-degree heat, but a mid-month pattern change brought some relief from the heat and widespread rainfall that led to drought improvement. Record Heat Drives a Warm Month Yes, the calendar may have said it was October, but early last month felt more like July as temperatures hit the 100-degree mark in parts…

Oct 15, 2019

Was Hazel North Carolina’s Worst-Case Hurricane?

This is the final post in our “Stormy Summer” series looking back at some memorable hurricane anniversaries occurring in 2019. No discussion about North Carolina’s significant historical hurricanes is complete without including Hazel, which hit the state 65 years ago today. In terms of intensity, Hazel is in a league of its own. Despite our…

Oct 11, 2019

The Leaves, They Are a Changin’… But Why?

It’s a tradition as old as nature itself — the changing leaf colors that put a pop in our picturesque fall landscapes. Trees often look like they’re completely in sync as they simultaneously change to shades of yellow, orange, and red, but each tree is operating independently and using everything from its genetics to the…

Oct 9, 2019

A Tropical Trio in September 2004 Tested the Mountain Terrain

This is the fifth post in our “Stormy Summer” series looking back at some memorable hurricane anniversaries occurring in 2019. Long after their hurricane-force winds had worn off and they left Florida in varying degrees of disrepair, three storms in September 2004 moved up the east coast and showed they weren’t done dealing damage just…

Oct 3, 2019

A Hot, Dry September Sees Drought’s Rapid Return

The calendar says it’s fall but it still feels like summer. Our September temperatures were warm, our precipitation was generally light after Hurricane Dorian, and drought is back in North Carolina. Can’t Beat the Heat Summer-like temperatures have persisted well into the fall this year, making it one of our warmest Septembers in recent memory.…

Sep 23, 2019

How Howling Hugo Became the Western Piedmont’s Worst Hurricane

This is the fourth post in our “Stormy Summer” series looking back at some memorable hurricane anniversaries occurring in 2019. Well inland from the tempest-tossed coastline, one part of North Carolina would seem to be a safe haven from the hazards of hurricanes. The western Piedmont is at least a three-hour drive from the closest…

Sep 23, 2019

For Duke Energy, No Shelter from Hugo’s Storm

Thirty years ago, Hurricane Hugo tested nearly every aspect of our infrastructure in the Carolinas. Trees and power lines snapped in the storm’s winds, cutting off the electricity that powered everything from water pumps to gas pumps. At the coast, roads and boardwalks were scoured away by the storm surge. Flash flooding in the Mountains…

Sep 16, 2019

Floyd’s Flooding Overwhelmed Eastern North Carolina

This is the third post in our “Stormy Summer” series looking back at some memorable hurricane anniversaries occurring in 2019. Out of almost 150 years of recorded hurricanes in North Carolina through 1999, none were quite like Floyd. When the sixth named storm of the 1999 season arrived at our coast twenty years ago today,…
Floyd Images

Sep 16, 2019

Farmers Felt Floyd’s Full Force, Beginning in Onslow County

Perhaps the most famous pictures taken during Hurricane Floyd were not of people but of pigs. Aerial shots showed hog farms flooded by the storm, with the animals who hadn’t drowned riding out the event from the roofs of barns. It wasn’t exactly pigs flying, but the livestock — like the flood waters that drove…