July 12: This Day in Hurricane History

The first named storm of the 2014 season, Hurricane Arthur, was a Category 2 hurricane with sustained winds of 100 mph.  It gave the Outer Banks a glancing blow on July 4 and became the earliest hurricane on record to make landfall in North Carolina.  According to the National Hurricane Center, damage from Arthur was minimal and there were no reported fatalities.

  

However, on this date in 1996, a more significant system struck North Carolina.  Hurricane Bertha made landfall as a Category 2 storm near Wilmington, North Carolina and went much further inland. At its strongest, Bertha had been a major, Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 115 mph.  Bertha formed in the tropical Atlantic Ocean and was a rare July “Cape Verde” hurricane.

Hurricanes that originate in the tropical Atlantic are dubbed “Cape Verde” hurricanes since they form not far from the Cape Verde Islands off the coast of West Central Africa. These hurricanes are usually among the longer lasting storms since they have the entire tropical Atlantic Ocean to travel across before reaching the Caribbean Sea. However, Cape Verde hurricanes do not usually form until early to mid-August when the ocean has had a chance to warm sufficiently.

Bertha was an exception having been named a tropical storm July 5, then upgraded to a hurricane on July 7.  Damage in the Mid-Atlantic was extensive, totaling $250 million from North Carolina northward to New England. At Dulles International Airport, a total of 1.42” of rain fell from the storm, while a weak tornado formed in Dundalk, Maryland.