Source: Corey Davis, NC CLIMATE OFFICE, 10/9/19


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 yet.

The remnants of Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne all crossed the Carolinas over the span of three weeks, causing flooding, landslides, and the wettest month ever in the western part of our state.

In that stormy summer 15 years ago, there were 15 named storms in the Atlantic, seven of which affected North Carolina in some way. In August alone, Alex grazed the Outer Banks as a Category-2, while the remnants of Bonnie, Charley, and Gaston also moved up the Coastal Plain.

But the three storms in the western part of the state were the most damaging, in part because of their individual impacts but also because of the collective ones. Excess moisture had nowhere to go between storms, and on the mountain slopes, what falls from up above must come down -- to rivers, towns, and roads dotting the terrain.

Hurricane Frances
The first of the three systems to develop was Frances, which became a tropical storm midway across the Atlantic on August 25 and was a major hurricane just two days later.

Frances reached Florida's southern coast on September 5 at Category-2 strength. After crossing the peninsula, Frances moved over the Gulf of Mexico as a tropical storm but did not restrengthen before hitting the panhandle.

By then, Frances was headed due north, traveling around the periphery of an upper-level high pressure system off the Southeast coast. It was a pattern that held for much of the month, meaning storms traveling along that conveyor belt tended to follow a similar track.

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