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Our Curious Coast: Adaptation and Resilience

hurricanes

A photo of Interstate 95 underwater in Lumberton after Hurricane Florence

Sep 12, 2023

Florence After Five: Communities, Disconnected

This is the second in a four-part blog post series remembering Hurricane Florence for its five-year anniversary. During the days-long deluge from Hurricane Florence, even as electricity and cell phone service were cut off across eastern North Carolina, there remained one way of monitoring the storm’s local impacts from afar. Navigation apps such as Google…
A satellite image of Hurricane Florence approaching North Carolina on September 12, 2018

Sep 11, 2023

Florence After Five: An Anxious Arrival

This is the first in a four-part blog post series remembering Hurricane Florence for its five-year anniversary. Within arm’s reach on the desk of Steve Pfaff, the warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Wilmington, is a printed map graphic. At first, it’s unassuming – weather maps are hardly out of place…
An aerial photo of a flooded section of Interstate 40 in Pender County after Hurricane Florence

Sep 11, 2023

Florence After Five

In September 2018, Hurricane Florence bore down on North Carolina for five days, producing record-breaking rainfall totals and leaving widespread flooding and damage in its wake. For the five-year anniversary of the storm, we’re taking a detailed look at Florence, from the lead-up to the storm through the ongoing recovery efforts. The posts are listed…
A satellite image of Idalia over eastern North Carolina early on Thursday, August 31

Aug 31, 2023

Rapid Reaction: Idalia Ends August on a Wet Note

The first tropical storm of the season to affect North Carolina lashed the southeastern part of the state with rain and wind, but apparently caused minimal overall damage and benefitted areas that slipped into drought during a hot, dry August. Idalia formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday and reached hurricane strength early on…
A photo of cloud cover and fog in the North Carolina Mountains

Jun 7, 2023

A Cool, Cloudy May Keeps Summer at Bay

Stretches of cooler weather left our temperatures below normal last month, but it was still a dry month overall. We also preview the Atlantic hurricane season now in progress. Temperatures Kept in Check A number of cloudy days and cool air masses from the north kept our temperatures at or below normal seasonal levels last…
A satellite image of Nicole moving over the Southeast US on November 11

Nov 14, 2022

Rapid Reaction: Late-Season Nicole Offers Needed Rainfall

The tropics had one more surprise in store this season with Hurricane Nicole, which brought wet and windy weather as its remnants crossed North Carolina late last week. Nicole was the 14th named storm of the year, matching the 30-year average for the basin. While 2022 was predicted to have above-normal activity, the nearly two-month…
A satellite image of Ian as it approached the Carolinas on September 30.

Oct 3, 2022

Rapid Reaction: Windy, Wet Ian Sweeps Through North Carolina

The remnants of Hurricane Ian crossed the Carolinas on Friday and Saturday, completing the storm’s week-long zig-zagging journey through the Caribbean, across Florida, and eventually up the Atlantic coast and inland. Ian’s twisting track, bobbing and weaving from east and west, was the result of its interactions with other non-tropical atmospheric features. Initially, the storm’s…
A photo of mist in the Mountains on an early August morning

Sep 7, 2022

Drought Disappears in August, Despite the Tropical Lull

Bookended by heat, August wrapped up a warm summer statewide, while scattered showers brought our ongoing drought to an end. We also turn to the tropics and review a rare storm-free August. A Warm Summer Wraps Up A hot start and end to August were balanced by cooler mid-month weather, but it was still a…
An aerial photo of a bridge over water in eastern North Carolina

Jul 21, 2022

Our Curious Coast: Adaptation and Resilience

If this blog post series so far has taught us anything, it’s that in North Carolina’s Coastal Plain, the land has always been in a delicate dance with water, from the sea’s retreat millions of years ago through the carving and shifting of our coastal rivers over hundreds of thousands of years to the erosion…