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Air Quality Forecasting: A Case Study

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Oct 6, 2015

Rapid Reaction: Persistent Rains Soak the Carolinas

Our recent spell of drenching rainfall is finally winding down, leaving flooding in parts of North Carolina and an historical watermark as one of the wettest weeks and most prolonged rainiest periods in our state’s history. Event Setup The rain began on September 24 when an offshore low drifted northwestward and delivered more than an…

Aug 20, 2015

NC Extremes: Our History of Record Heat

This post is part of our year-long series about North Carolina’s weather extremes. The heat and humidity of a North Carolina summer can be uncomfortable enough in a typical year. But our state has a history of the heat ramping up, often for days at a time, and pushing our statewide high temperature record —…

Jul 15, 2015

NC Extremes: Flood of 1916 Wiped Out Railways, Records

This post is part of our year-long series about North Carolina’s weather extremes. One of our state’s most notable floods wreaked havoc on western North Carolina residents in July 1916, breaking multiple records and leaving death and destruction in its wake. The Preceding Weather In late June 1916, a tropical depression formed in the western…

Apr 16, 2015

NC Extremes: April 2011 Tornado Outbreak One for the Records

This post is part of our year-long series about North Carolina’s weather extremes. One of North Carolina’s most widespread — and most recent — severe weather outbreaks came on April 16, 2011, when a line of storms encountered ideal environmental conditions to strengthen and spawn a record number of tornadoes across the state. A Severe…

Mar 12, 2015

NC Extremes: Storm of the Century Smashed Snowfall Records

This post is part of our year-long series about North Carolina’s weather extremes. An old adage says that March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. But what about the middle of the month? It’s often in between our big winter weather events and our springtime severe weather events. However, in…

Feb 25, 2015

NC Extremes: Arctic Air Masses Pack a High-Pressure Punch

This post is part of our year-long series about North Carolina’s weather extremes. When it comes to moving the mercury in barometers up to record-setting levels, nothing does the trick quite like a wintertime Arctic high pressure system. But before we get to North Carolina’s high pressure records, let’s briefly review air pressure, including how…

Jan 21, 2015

NC Extremes: The Coldest Day Redefined Records

This is the first post in a year-long series documenting some of North Carolina’s weather extremes. Today’s post looks at the event that brought the coldest air on record to most of the state. They say that records are made to be broken. But on January 21, 1985, the temperatures were so frigid that this…

Jan 21, 2015

NC Extremes: Series Overview

North Carolina has some iconic weather extremes: a low of -34°F at Mount Mitchell, a high of 110°F in Fayetteville, and 30 tornadoes on a single day, just to name a few. As part of a year-long blog post series in 2015, we will look at some of these events in more detail. We hope…

Aug 14, 2014

Air Quality Forecasting: A Case Study

This is the second of two guest posts about air quality forecasting by Bradley McLamb from the NC Division of Air Quality. This post looks at June 29, 2012: a day for the record books in North Carolina that featured extraordinary heat, severe weather, and the worst air quality episode in five years. For many…