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Was Hazel North Carolina’s Worst-Case Hurricane?

records

A photo of a woman walking a dog down a snow-covered road in Cary

Jan 24, 2025

Raleigh’s Record Snow Surprised Everyone in January 2000

It started with something familiar, at least by our wintry weather standards in North Carolina. But it didn’t take long to turn into a winter storm like the Triangle area had never seen before. On the evening of January 24, 2000 – a Monday, although that hardly mattered in the storm that warped time by…
A chart showing the historical hottest temperature occurrence, by month, for Raleigh

Sep 13, 2021

Climate Curiosities: When the Dog Days are the Doggonest

After sliding through this June and July with relatively few hot days, it may have seemed like we were out of the woods when it came to summer’s highest heat. But then came August and hundred-degree temperatures in the eastern Piedmont and Sandhills. Existing datasets tell us that our hottest weather typically occurs in July,…
The June 2021 precipitation summary infographic, highlighting the monthly average temperature, departure from normal, and comparison to historical and recent years

Jul 2, 2021

Rainfall Extremes in June Jumble the State Drought Map

While the rain reigned in eastern North Carolina last month, the western Piedmont stayed dry and has seen a degradation on the state drought map. Plus, how do our temperatures compare to the recent records out west? From Really Dry to Record Wet In some months, a statewide average acts as a good representation for…

Jan 4, 2021

Warm, Wet December Weather Lands Short of Annual Records

With year-long temperature and precipitation records on the line, we narrowly missed both following warm and wet (but not warm and wet enough) weather in December. The initial stats still show it was an extreme year. You’re invited to learn more in an upcoming webinar! Cooler Spells Temper our Temperatures While a moderately warm month could have set a new annual…

Jan 2, 2021

An Extreme, Unusual 2020: the Weather Year in Review

The unprecedented aspects of 2020 included our climate in North Carolina, which the statistics show was an extreme year in our modern history. According to the National Centers for Environmental Information, 2020 was our 2nd-wettest year on record and tied for our 3rd-warmest year on record dating back to 1895. That makes 2020 the only time in the past 126…

Dec 4, 2020

A Warm, Wet November Puts Records Within Reach

A few drenched days from the tropics’ parting shot to the Southeast amounted to a wet month in North Carolina that also featured sustained warmth. That vaulted us closer to potential new annual temperature and precipitation records. Eta’s Moisture Drives Wet Weather Capping off the hurricane season, tropical moisture from one storm almost single-handedly made it one of the…

Nov 13, 2020

Rapid Reaction: Eta-Aided Rain Event Drenches NC

Amid a record-breaking hurricane season that has run up the score by repeatedly slam-dunking on the US coastline, it poured buckets in North Carolina yet again this week. Tropical Storm Eta dealt an atmospheric alley-oop to an approaching cold front in the form of ample Atlantic moisture, soaking the state and raising rivers to flood levels. In…

Jan 8, 2020

Q&A: Our Record Warmest Year in 2019

Those warm days in late December when temperatures touched the 70s didn’t just make you pull out the sandals for holiday break. They also helped 2019 secure the title of North Carolina’s warmest year on record. Our record-setting year was confirmed today by our colleagues in Asheville at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National…

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…