Hurricane Landfalls
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Between 1851 and 2019, North Carolina had a direct landfall every two years, on average. And while storms don’t have to make landfall along our shores to affect us – plenty of remnant storms that made landfall in other areas can impact us, too – these events include some of the best-known hurricanes in our state’s history.
Tropical Cyclone Landfall Tool
The tool below uses historical storm tracks from the National Hurricane Center’s HURDAT2 database to plot storms that made landfall in the Carolinas. Each point represents a storm’s center of circulation at landfall, and not the size of the eye or the range of locations it affected.
Note that secondary landfalls are not included; e.g., for a storm that first made landfall along Hatteras Island, then crossed the sound and made a second landfall on the mainland, only the initial landfall at Hatteras is displayed.
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Landfalling Hurricanes
Since 1851, 36 storms have made landfall in North Carolina at hurricane strength. This includes some of our strongest hurricanes, including Hazel and its record Category-4 intensity, a barrage from the 1990s including Fran and Floyd, and more recent heavy-hitting storms such as Isabel, Irene, and Florence.
This table is based on best track data from the National Hurricane Center and their official list of landfalling hurricanes in the United States. Other key sources for determining landfall locations include the NWS memo Tropical cyclones affecting North Carolina since 1586: An historical perspective and NWS Newport/Morehead City’s Tropical Cyclone Climatology page.
| Storm Name | Landfall Date | Landfall Location | Max. Winds at Landfall | Min. Pressure at Landfall |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unnamed | Sep. 13, 1857 | Cape Fear | 104 mph (Category 2) | |
| “Equinoctal” | Sep. 27, 1861 | Onslow County | 81 mph (Category 1) | |
| “Expedition” | Nov. 2, 1861 | Carteret County | 81 mph (Category 1) | |
| “San Felipe” | Sep. 17, 1876 | Topsail Island | 92 mph (Category 1) | 980 mb |
| “Gale of 1878” | Oct. 22, 1878 | Swansboro | 104 mph (Category 2) | 963 mb |
| “Great Beaufort” | Aug. 18, 1879 | Atlantic Beach | 115 mph (Category 3) | 971 mb |
| Unnamed | Sep. 9, 1880 | Bogue Banks | 81 mph (Category 1) | 987 mb |
| Unnamed | Sep. 9, 1881 | Oak Island | 104 mph (Category 2) | |
| “Bahamas-North Carolina” | Sep. 11, 1883 | NC/SC border | 104 mph (Category 2) | |
| Unnamed | Aug. 25, 1885 | Hatteras Island | 81 mph (Category 1) | |
| “San Ciriaco” | Aug. 17, 1899 | Hatteras | 121 mph (Category 3) | |
| “San Cirilo” | Jul. 11, 1901 | Kill Devil Hills | 81 mph (Category 1) | |
| Unnamed | Jul. 31, 1908 | Carteret County | 81 mph (Category 1) | |
| Unnamed | Sep. 3, 1913 | Core Banks | 86 mph (Category 1) | 976 mb |
| Unnamed | Aug. 24, 1918 | Atlantic Beach | 75 mph (Category 1) | |
| “Chesapeake-Potomac” | Aug. 23, 1933 | Nags Head | 92 mph (Category 1) | 963 mb |
| Unnamed | Aug. 1, 1944 | Southport | 81 mph (Category 1) | 985 mb |
| Barbara | Aug. 14, 1953 | between Morehead City and Ocracoke | 92 mph (Category 1) | |
| Hazel | Oct. 15, 1954 | NC/SC border | 132 mph (Category 4) | 938 mb |
| Connie | Aug. 12, 1955 | Fort Macon | 98 mph (Category 2) | 962 mb |
| Ione | Sep. 19, 1955 | Atlantic Beach | 104 mph (Category 2) | 955 mb |
| Donna | Sep. 12, 1960 | Topsail Island | 104 mph (Category 2) | 958 mb |
| Ginger | Sep. 30, 1971 | Emerald Isle | 75 mph (Category 1) | 991 mb |
| Diana | Sep. 13, 1984 | Southport | 92 mph (Category 1) | 979 mb |
| Gloria | Sep. 27, 1985 | Cape Hatteras | 104 mph (Category 2) | 942 mb |
| Charley | Aug. 17, 1986 | Cape Lookout | 75 mph (Category 1) | 990 mb |
| Bertha | Jul. 12, 1996 | near Wilmington | 104 mph (Category 2) | 974 mb |
| Fran | Sep. 5, 1996 | Cape Fear | 115 mph (Category 3) | 954 mb |
| Bonnie | Aug. 27, 1998 | near Wilmington | 109 mph (Category 2) | 964 mb |
| Floyd | Sep. 16, 1999 | Cape Fear | 104 mph (Category 2) | 956 mb |
| Isabel | Sep. 18, 2003 | Drum Inlet | 104 mph (Category 2) | 957 mb |
| Irene | Aug. 27, 2011 | Cape Lookout | 86 mph (Category 1) | 952 mb |
| Arthur | Jul. 3, 2014 | Shackleford Banks | 98 mph (Category 2) | 974 mb |
| Florence | Sep. 14, 2018 | Wrightsville Beach | 92 mph (Category 1) | 955 mb |
| Dorian | Sep. 6, 2019 | Cape Hatteras | 98 mph (Category 2) | 956 mb |
| Isaias | Aug. 3, 2020 | Ocean Isle Beach | 92 mph (Category 1) | 986 mb |
Notes:
- The August 1885 hurricane made its initial landfall along the South Carolina coast before moving into southeastern North Carolina, but it did cross the Pamlico Sound and make a second landfall at hurricane strength along the Outer Banks, so it is included in this list.
- Connecting the dots with track data for the May 1908 hurricane, it appears to have made landfall near Cape Hatteras; however, the National Hurricane Center does not officially record this as a landfalling storm, and instead as a narrow miss along the Outer Banks.
- The so-called Outer Banks hurricane in June 1945 is depicted at Category-1 intensity in its track up the coastline, but a reanalysis of the storm determined that it was likely not at hurricane strength along our coast.