A strong tropical wave moved off Africa on August 22nd moved westward into the open Atlantic.
It quickly developed a surface circulation and developed into a tropical depression by the morning
of the 23rd. It moved westward at 15 knots with little change in intensity, moving about 750 miles
east-southeast of the more powerful Hurricane Eduoard. The system became a tropical storm on
the 27th, just over midway between Africa and the Lesser Antilles. Hurricane status was reached
during the evening of the 28th while approaching the Leeward Islands. Fran slowed its motion and began to drift northwest on the 30th, following Eduoard’s lead.

Weakening briefly back to tropical storm status, Fran became a hurricane again on the 31st. Motion became west-northwest as Eduoard accelerated to the north, and the Bermuda High wedged in between the two systems. Paralleling the Bahamas by 100 miles, Fran became a major hurricane with winds sustained at 115 mph on the 4th. A deep closed low over Tennessee initially caused Fran to move north, then eventually northwest into North Carolina on the 5th. Rains began on the 3rd as the Bermuda High created a moist southeast fetch into the Appalachians, and the nearby closed low destabilized the atmosphere. This low caused Fran to track almost perpendicular to the mountain chain…an unusual feat, and recurve northeastward across the eastern Great Lakes on the 8th and 9th. By the 10th, Fran weakened as it moved offshore the New England coast.Its track is below, courtesy of the National Hurricane Center.

<<Retired Hurricane

Floyd brought flooding rains, high winds and rough seas along a good portion of the Atlantic seaboard from the 14th through the 18th of September. The greatest damages were along the eastern Carolinas northeast into New Jersey, and adjacent areas northeastward along the east coast into Maine. Several states had numerous counties declared disaster areas. Flooding caused major problems across the region, and at least 77 deaths have been reported. Damages are estimated to be $1.6 billion in Pitt County, North Carolina alone, and total storm damages may surpass the $6 billion caused by Hurricane Fran in 1996

Although Hurricane Floyd reached category 4 intensity in the Bahamas, it weakened to category 2 intensity at landfall in North Carolina. Floyd’s large size was a greater problem than its winds, as the heavy rainfall covered a larger area and lasted longer than with a typical category 2 hurricane. Approximately 2.6 million people evacuated their homes in Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas–the largest peacetime evacuation in US history. Ten states were declared major disaster areas as a result of Floyd, including Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia. There were several reports from the Bahamas area northward of wave heights exceeding 50 feet. The maximum storm surge was estimated to be 10.3 feet on Masonborough Island in New Hanover County, NC.

<<Retired Hurricane