Here are just a couple of the recent hurricanes that have directly affected Alamance County.  While we do not get a coastal hit, and while we do not often have the center of the storm pass over us, we often get affected by the hundreds of miles of winds and rains that are associated with these giant storms.

Hurricane Floyd 1999
Floyd was first detected as a tropical wave that moved off the African coast on September 2. The system developed into a tropical depression over the tropical Atlantic on September 7. Moving steadily west-northwestward, the system became a tropical storm the next day and a hurricane on the 10th. A northwestward turn late on the 10th was followed by a westward turn on the 12th, with the second turn marking the time Floyd started strengthening in earnest. It became a Category 4 hurricane on September 13 as it approached the central Bahama Islands. A west-northwestward turn late on the 13th took the center through the northeastern Bahamas. This was followed by a gradual turn to the north-northeast, which brought the center to the North Carolina coast near Cape Fear on September 16 as a Category 2 hurricane. Floyd continued north-northeastward along the coast of the Mid-Atlantic into New England, where the storm became extratropical on the 17th. The remnants of Floyd merged with a large non-tropical low on September 19.

While wind gusts of 120 mph and storm surges of 9 to 10 ft were reported from the North Carolina coast, Floyd will be most remembered in the United States for its rainfall. The combination of Floyd and a frontal system over the eastern United States produced widespread rainfalls in excess of 10 inches from North Carolina northeastward, with amounts as high as 19.06 inches in Wilmington, North Carolina and 13.70 inches at Brewster, New York. These rains, aided by rains from Tropical Storm Dennis two weeks earlier, caused widespread severe flooding that caused the majority of the $3 to 6 billion in damage caused by Floyd. These floods also were responsible for 50 of the 56 deaths caused by Floyd in the United States. Floyd also caused damage in the Bahamas, with one death reported.

The National Hurricane Center also maintains the official Tropical Cyclone Report for Hurricane Floyd.

For an interactive map of Hurricane Floyd visit the NOAA Coastal Services Center.

Information on rainfall and flooding from Floyd is available from the NOAA National Climatic Data Center.

More images of Floyd are available from NASA Goddard Laboratory Web site.

Hurricane Isabel 2003
A well-organized but slow moving tropical wave that exited the African coastline on September 1st developed into Tropical Storm Isabel on the morning of September 6th. Isabel became a hurricane on September 7th and rapidly intensified to Category 4 hurricane strength on the evening of the 8th while the eye was located more than 1100 miles to the east of the Leeward Islands. This impressive hurricane reached Category 5 strength on September 11th, making Isabel the strongest hurricane in the Atlantic basin since Mitch in October 1998. The cyclone turned northwestward around the western periphery of the Atlantic ridge beginning on the 15th. Isabel began to weaken on the 15th as conditions aloft became more hostile, and it fell below major hurricane strength for the first time in eight days on the 16th.

Although weakening, Isabel’s wind field continued to expand as hurricane warnings were issued for most of the North Carolina and Virginia coastline, including the Chesapeake Bay. Isabel’s large eye pushed ashore just after the noon hour on September 18th near Drum Inlet along North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Isabel was the worst hurricane to affect the Chesapeake Bay region since 1933. Storm surge values of more than 8 feet flooded rivers that flowed into the Bay across Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and Washington, D.C. Isabel brought tropical storm force gusts as far north as New York State as it moved inland. The most intense hurricane of the 2003 season directly resulted in 17 deaths and more than 3 billion dollars in damages. The large wind field toppled trees and cut power to more than four million customers.

The National Hurricane Center also maintains the official Tropical Cyclone Report for Hurricane Isabel.

For an interactive map of Hurricane Isabel visit the NOAA Coastal Services Center.

Hurricane Jeanne 2004
Jeanne formed from a tropical wave, becoming a tropical depression on September 13 near the Leeward Islands, and strengthening to a tropical storm the next day. Moving west-northwestward, Jeanne struck Puerto Rico on the 15th with 70 m.p.h. winds and then strengthened to a hurricane just before making landfall in the Dominican Republic. Jeanne spent nearly 36 hours over the rough terrain of Hispaniola, generating torrential rainfall before emerging into the Atlantic north of the island. Steering currents in the western Atlantic were weak, and Jeanne moved slowly through and north of the southeastern Bahamas over the next five days while it gradually regained the strength it had lost over Hispaniola. By the 23rd , high pressure had built in over the northeastern United States and western Atlantic, causing Jeanne to turn westward. Jeanne strengthened and became a major hurricane on the 25th while the center moved over Abaco and then Grand Bahama Island. Early on the 26th , the center of Jeanne's 60-mile-wide eye crossed the Florida coast near Stuart, at virtually the identical spot that Frances had come ashore three weeks earlier. Maximum winds at the time of landfall are estimated to be near 120 m.p.h.

Jeanne weakened as it moved across central Florida, becoming a tropical storm during the afternoon of the 26th near Tampa, and then weakening to a depression a day later over central Georgia. The depression was still accompanied by heavy rain when it moved over the Carolinas, Virginia, and the Delmarva Peninsula on the 28th and 29th before becoming extratropical.

Jeanne produced extreme rain accumulations in Puerto Rico and Hispaniola, with nearly 24 inches reported in Vieques. Rains from the cyclone resulted in historic floods in Puerto Rico, and deadly flash-floods and mudslides in Haiti, where over 3000 people lost their lives and roughly 200,000 were left homeless. Three deaths occurred in Florida, and one each in Puerto Rico, South Carolina, and Virginia. In the United States, damage is estimated to be near $6.9 billion.

The National Hurricane Center also maintains the official Tropical Cyclone Report for Hurricane Jeanne.

For an interactive map of Hurricane Jeanne visit the NOAA Coastal Services Center.