Tropical Storm — Northern Outer Banks, North Carolina

2023-09-22 · Northern Outer Banks, North Carolina

Event narrative

Tropical storm force winds were measured on a WxFlow station near Oregon Inlet in the Northern Outer Banks. Winds reached tropical storm force criteria Friday afternoon and persisted into Friday evening with a max wind speed of 36 knots, while the highest recorded wind gust was 49 knots.

Wider weather episode

On Thursday, September 21st, an area of low pressure begin to develop and get more organized off the Southeast US coastline. That low continued to deepen and become more organized, eventually taking on tropical characteristics, becoming the 15th named storm of the 2023 Atlantic Hurricane Season on Friday, September 22nd. Ophelia developed into a strong tropical storm and moved north over the next couple of days, making landfall during the early morning hours near Emerald Isle, NC. Ophelia continued to march north through the heart of Eastern North Carolina on Saturday, September 23rd. Ophelia eventually weakened to a Tropical Depression Saturday evening over southern Virginia.

Ophelia brought widespread heavy rainfall, gusty winds, and significant river and storm surge flooding to portions of Eastern North Carolina, and is a reminder that it's never just a tropical storm. One of the more notable impacts with Ophelia was flooding, both from storm surge and from heavy rain / flash flooding. Significant storm surge flooding occurred along the Neuse, Pamlico, and Pungo Rivers. Inland, significant flooding occurred in the Greenville area due to flash flooding and a rapidly rising Green Mill Run.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1139943. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.