North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

's climate varies from the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

coast in the east to the

Appalachian Mountain The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...

range in the west. The mountains often act as a "shield", blocking low temperatures and storms from the Midwest from entering the

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

of North Carolina.North Carolina Department of the Secretary of State
North Carolina Climate & Geography.
Retrieved on 2008-01-13. Most of the state has a humid subtropical climate (

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

''Cfa''), except in the higher elevations of the Appalachians which have a

subtropical highland climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ...

(Köppen ''Cfb''). The

USDA The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of com ...

Hardiness Zones for the state range from Zone 5A (-20 °F to -15 °F) in the mountains to Zone 9A (20 °F to 25 °F) along the easternmost portions of the coast. For most areas in the state, the temperatures in July during the daytime are approximately . In January the average temperatures range near .U.S. Travel Weather
North Carolina Weather.
Retrieved on 2008-01-13.

Precipitation

There is an average of forty-five inches of rain a year (fifty inches in mountainous regions). July storms account for much of this precipitation. As much as 15% of the rainfall during the warm season in the Carolinas can be attributed to tropical cyclones. Mountains usually see some snow in the fall and winter. Moist winds from the southwest drop an average of of precipitation on the western side of the mountains, while the northeast-facing slopes average less than half that amount.City-Data.co

Retrieved on 2008-02-09.

Snow

Snow Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...

in North Carolina is seen on a regular basis in the mountains. North Carolina averages of snow per winter season. However, this varies greatly across the state. Along the coast, most areas register less than per year while the state capital,

Raleigh Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the seat of Wake County in the United States. It is the second-most populous city in North Carolina, after Charlotte. Raleigh is the tenth-most populous city in the Southeas ...

, averages . Farther west in the Piedmont-Triad, the average grows to approximately . The Charlotte area averages approximately . The town of Boone, North Carolina, located at an elevation of 3,333 feet in the northwestern part of the state, averages approximately 45 inches of snow per winter season. The mountains in the west act as a barrier, preventing most snowstorms from entering the

. When snow does make it past the mountains, it is usually light and is seldom on the ground for more than two or three days. However, several storms have dropped or more of snow within normally warm areas. The

1993 Storm of the Century The 1993 Storm of the Century (also known as the 93 Superstorm, The No Name Storm, or the Great Blizzard of '93/1993) was a cyclonic storm that formed over the Gulf of Mexico on March 12, 1993. The cold weather, heavy snowfall, high winds and s ...

that lasted from March 11 to March 15 affected locales from

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

, and brought exceptionally heavy snow to North Carolina.

Newfound Gap Newfound Gap (el. ) is a mountain pass located near the center of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park of the southern Appalachian Mountains in the United States of America. Situated along the border of Tennessee and North Carolina, the state l ...

received more than of snow with drifts more than , while

Mount Mitchell Mount Mitchell, known in Cherokee as Attakulla, is the highest peak of the Appalachian Mountains and the highest peak in mainland eastern North America. It is located near Burnsville in Yancey County, North Carolina in the Black Mountain sub ...

measured over of snow with drifts to . Most of the northwestern part of the state received somewhere between and of snow. Another significant snowfall hit the Raleigh area in January 2000 when more than of snow fell. There was also a heavy snowfall totaling that hit the Wilmington area on December 22–23, 1989. This storm affected only the Southeastern US coast, as far south as Savannah, GA, with little to no snow measured west of

I-95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from US Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the Canadia ...

. Most big snows that impact areas east of the mountains come from extratropical cyclones which approach from the south across Georgia and South Carolina and move off the coast of North or South Carolina. These storms typically throw Gulf or Atlantic moisture over cold Arctic air at ground level, usually propelled southward from Arctic high pressure over the Northeastern or New England states. If the storms track sufficiently far to the east, snow will be limited to the eastern part of the state (as with the December 22–23, 1989, storm, and the January 4, 2018, storm that dropped 4 inches at Cape Hatteras, but virtually no snow in inland North Carolina locations). If the cyclones travel close to the coast, warm air will get pulled into eastern North Carolina due to increasing flow off the milder

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

, bringing a rain/snow line well inland with heavy snow restricted to the Piedmont, foothills and mountains, as with the January 22, 1987, storm that dropped 6 inches at Charlotte. If the storm tracks inland into eastern North Carolina, the rain/snow line ranges between Raleigh and Greensboro.

Tropical cyclones

Located along the Atlantic Coast, many hurricanes that come up from the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...

make it up the coast of eastern America, passing by North Carolina. On October 15, 1954,

Hurricane Hazel Hurricane Hazel was the deadliest, second costliest, and most intense hurricane of the 1954 Atlantic hurricane season. The storm killed at least 469 people in Haiti before striking the United States near the border between North and Sout ...

struck North Carolina, at that time it was a category 4 hurricane within the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. Hazel caused significant damage due to its strong winds. A weather station at Oak Island reported

maximum sustained wind The maximum sustained wind associated with a tropical cyclone is a common indicator of the intensity of the storm. Within a mature tropical cyclone, it is found within the eyewall at a distance defined as the radius of maximum wind, or RMW. Unl ...

s of , while in

winds of were measured. The hurricane caused 19 deaths and significant destruction. One person at

Long Beach Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

claimed that "of the 357 buildings that existed in the town, 352 were totally destroyed and the other five damaged". Hazel was described as "the most destructive storm in the history of North Carolina" in a 1989 report.State Climate Office of North Carolina
Research on North Carolina Severe Weather.
Retrieved on 2008-03-09. In 1996,

Hurricane Fran Hurricane Fran caused extensive damage in the United States in early September 1996. The sixth named storm, fifth hurricane, and third major hurricane of the 1996 Atlantic hurricane season, Fran developed from a tropical wave near Cape Verde on ...

made landfall in North Carolina. As a category 3 hurricane, Fran caused a great deal of damage, mainly through winds. Fran's maximum sustained wind speeds were , while North Carolina's coast saw surges of to above sea level. The amount of damage caused by Fran ranged from $1.275 to $2 billion in North Carolina.

Rain

Heavy rains accompany

tropical cyclones A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Dependi ...

and their remnants which move northeast from the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...

coastline, as well as inland from the western subtropical

Atlantic ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

. Over the past 30 years, the wettest tropical cyclone to strike the coastal plain was

Hurricane Floyd Hurricane Floyd was a very powerful Cape Verde hurricane which struck the Bahamas and the East Coast of the United States. It was the sixth named storm, fourth hurricane, and third major hurricane in the 1999 Atlantic hurricane season. Floyd tr ...

of September 1999, which dropped over of rainfall north of

Southport Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England. Southport lies on the Iris ...

. Unlike Hazel and Fran, the main force of destruction was from precipitation. Before Hurricane Floyd reached North Carolina, the state had already received large amounts of rain from

Hurricane Dennis Hurricane Dennis was an early-forming major hurricane in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico during the record-breaking 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. Dennis was the fourth named storm, second hurricane, and first major hurricane of the season. F ...

less than two weeks before Floyd. This saturated much of the Eastern North Carolina soil and allowed heavy rains from Hurricane Floyd to turn into floods. Over 35 people died from Floyd. In the mountains,

Hurricane Frances Hurricane Frances was the second most intense tropical cyclone in the Atlantic during 2004 and proved to be very destructive in Florida. It was the sixth named storm, the fourth hurricane, and the third major hurricane of the 2004 Atlantic hur ...

of September 2004 was nearly as wet, bringing over of rainfall to

Severe weather

In most years, the greatest weather-related economic loss incurred in North Carolina is due to severe weather spawned by summer thunderstorms. These storms affect limited areas, with their hail and wind accounting for an average annual loss of over US$5 million. North Carolina averages 31 tornadoes a year with May seeing the most tornadoes on average a month with 5. June, July and August all have an average of 3 tornadoes with an increase to 4 average tornadoes a month in September. It is through September and into early November when North Carolina can typically expect to see that smaller, secondary, severe weather season. While severe weather season is technically from March through May, tornadoes have touched down in North Carolina in every month of the year. On November 28, 1988, an early morning F4 tornado smashed across northwestern Raleigh, continuing 84 miles further, killing 4 and injuring 157.Raleigh Tornado
/ref> On February 6, 2020, severe storms hit North Carolina, with a tornado beginning in Rowan County, north of Charlotte. as it travelled north, wind speeds picked up to 30 mph. By 4pm, 100 000 people were without power and flash flood warnings were hitting areas in the North and Northwest with this flood watch staying in full effect until the following Thursday.

Changes

The North Carolina coastline is expected to rise between one and four feet in the next century due to a combination of warming oceans, melting ice, and land subsidence. Temperatures in North Carolina have risen. Over the last 100 years, the average temperature in

Chapel Hill Chapel Hill or Chapelhill may refer to: Places Antarctica * Chapel Hill (Antarctica) Australia *Chapel Hill, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane *Chapel Hill, South Australia, in the Mount Barker council area Canada * Chapel Hill, Ottawa, a neighbo ...

has gone up 1.2 °F (0.7 °C) and precipitation in some parts of the state has increased by 5 percent.Duke University
Climate Change and North Carolina
Retrieved on 2008-01-17. Around the year 2080, "temperatures are likely to rise above 95°F approximately 20 to 40 days per year in most of the state, compared with about 10 days per year" in 2016.

Seasonal conditions

Winter

In winter, North Carolina is somewhat protected by the

Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...

to the west. Cold fronts from

are typically reduced in intensity by the mountains. However, occasionally cold air can move from the north or northeast, east of the Appalachian Mountains, from Arctic high pressure systems that settle over the Northeastern or New England states. Other polar and Arctic outbreaks can cross the mountains and force temperatures to drop to about in central North Carolina. Still, temperatures below zero degrees Fahrenheit are extremely rare outside of the mountains. The coldest ever recorded temperature in North Carolina was on January 21, 1985, at

. The winter temperatures on the coast are milder due to the warming influence of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf Stream.State Climate Office of North Carolina
General Summary of N.C. Climate.
Retrieved on 2008-01-13. The average ocean temperature in

in January is still higher than the average ocean temperature in Maine during July. Snow is common in the mountains, although many ski resorts use snowmaking equipment to make sure there is always snow on their land. North Carolina's relative humidity is highest in the winter.

Spring

Tornadoes are most likely in the spring. Major tornado outbreaks affected parts of eastern North Carolina on March 28, 1984, and April 16, 2011. The month of May experiences the greatest rise in temperatures. During the spring, there are warm days and cool nights in the Piedmont. Temperatures are somewhat cooler in the mountains and warmer, particularly at night, near the coast. North Carolina's humidity is lowest in the spring.

Summer

North Carolina experiences high summer temperatures. Sometimes, cool, dry air from the north will invade North Carolina for brief periods of time, with temperatures quickly rebounding.NCDC
Climate of North Carolina
Retrieved on 2008-02-09. It remains colder at high elevations, with the average summer temperature in

lying at . Morning temperatures are on average 20 °F (12 °C) lower than afternoon temperatures, except along the Atlantic Coast. The largest economic loss from severe weather in North Carolina is due to severe thunderstorms in the summer, although they usually only hit small areas. Tropical cyclones can impact the state during the summer as well. Fogs are also frequent in the summer.

Fall

Fall is the most rapidly changing season temperature wise, especially in October and November. Tropical cyclones remain a threat until late in the season. The

are frequently visited at this time of year, due to the leaves changing color in the trees.

Southern Oscillation

During El Niño events, winter and early spring temperatures are cooler than average with above average precipitation in the central and eastern parts of the state and drier weather in the western part. La Niña usually brings warmer than average temperatures with above average precipitation in the western part of the state while the central and coastal regions stay drier than average.

Climate data

References

External links

State Climate Office of North Carolina
{{good article Geography of North Carolina