Source: Corey Davis, NC CLIMATE OFFICE, 11/13/20


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 the week after devastating Nicaragua as a Category-4 hurricane, Eta zig-zagged through the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico on its way to the Florida coastline. It was the ninth storm to make landfall along the US Gulf coast this year, and the fifth in the past two months following Sally, Beta, Delta, and Zeta.

For North Carolina, Eta's effects did not include the standard fare from a tropical storm of high winds and storm surge, as we saw during Hurricane Isaias this summer. Instead, it helped arm and aim a full-force blast of water vapor straight at our state.

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