Tropical Storm — Western Currituck, North Carolina

2023-09-22 to 2023-09-23 · Western Currituck, North Carolina

Event narrative

Tropical Storm Ophelia tracked northward across east central North Carolina and up through central Virginia from early Saturday morning, September 23 into early Sunday morning, September 24. The combination of high pressure to the north and Ophelia resulted in strong northeast, east and then southeast winds. Several mesonets across western Currituck measured tropical storm force winds of 34 to 49 knots on September 23 including a mesonet at Cape Fear Drive and at Elliott Road. While the Currituck County Airport AWOS did not measure winds that high, it did measure a maximum gust of 36 knots (41 miles per hour) at 5:05 PM EST on September 22. When factoring in the AWOS and several mesonets throughout the county, two rounds of Tropical Storm force winds impacted western Currituck County between 4:30 PM EST on September 22 and 12:30 PM EST on September 23 from Tropical Storm Ophelia.

Wider weather episode

Tropical Storm Ophelia made landfall in Emerald Island, NC (in the southeast part of the state) at 6:20 AM on Saturday, 9/23 as a tropical storm with 70 mph winds. Ophelia gradually weakened (and lost tropical characteristics) as it tracked northward toward the Wakefield CWA during the day on Saturday. Ophelia tracked northward roughly along the I-95 corridor during the afternoon and evening hours on Saturday, reaching the Richmond Metro Area while weakening to a depression. Ophelia became an post-tropical cyclone shortly thereafter and exited to the north/northeast on Sunday. Northeast winds gusted as high as 50-65 mph near the VA/NC coast well in advance of Ophelia Friday evening into early Saturday morning (due to a tight gradient between high pressure over New England and the tropical storm to the south), with 25-45 mph gusts farther inland. Winds turned to the SE near the coast on Saturday and a few gusts to 40-45 mph were observed (while winds remained northeast inland west of the low track).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1143164. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.