Hurricane Fran
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- This article is about the hurricane of 1996. For other storms of the same name, see Hurricane Fran (disambiguation).
Hurricane Fran was a powerful Cape Verde-type hurricane of the 1996 Atlantic hurricane season that made landfall near Cape Fear in North Carolina at Category 3 strength.
The tropical wave that would become Hurricane Fran emerged from the west coast of Africa on August 22, and quickly organized into a tropical depression. Fran continued to track across the Atlantic, slowly strengthening. The slowness of Fran's development is attributed to nearby Hurricane Edouard, which was disrupting Fran's inflow currents. Fran reached hurricane strength on August 29, but quickly weakened back to a tropical storm.
By August 31, Edouard had moved northward, allowing Fran to develop. Fran moving more quickly, and passed north of the Bahamas as it reached Category 3 strength on September 4.
Fran struck the North Carolina coast east of the Cape Fear River around 8:30 pm EDT, September 5 1996, with wind gusts up to 120 mph (193 km/h) causing damage from the South Carolina border to Surf City, North Carolina Its 12-foot storm surge carried away a temporary North Topsail Beach police station and town hall, housed in a double-wide trailer since Hurricane Bertha's rampage across the same area in July. Extensive flooding struck the coast around Wrightsville Beach just up the coast from Cape Fear.
Fran's top winds quickly dropped to 100 mph (160 km/h) after landfall, but the storm still caused damage on its way north to Wilmington and Raleigh. A weakened Hurricane Fran turned into a tropical storm when it winds dropped below 74 mph (119 km/h) early Sept. 6, while passing into Virginia.
In Virginia, winds between 39 and 73 mph (63 and 117 km/h) lashed Chesapeake Bay and increased water levels in the Potomac River around the nation's Capitol where it backed up into Georgetown and Old Town Alexandria, Virginia.
Rain of up to 15 inches (380 mm) deluged interior North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia, bringing dangerous river flooding to much of the mid-Atlantic.
Twenty-six people were killed by Fran and estimated property damage was $3.2 billion dollars (1996 dollars).
Before landfall, Hurricane Fran was quite large, with sustained hurricane force winds over 75 mph (120 km/h) extending out as much as 140 miles (225 km) from its center.
With winds reaching 115 mph (185 km/h), Hurricane Fran became the third "major" hurricane of the 1996 Atlantic hurricane season. Hurricane Bertha was the first and Edouard was the second. A "major" hurricane has winds exceeding 110 mph (177 km/h).
Hurricane Fran's thrashing of North Carolina aggravated the state's problems caused by numerous weather disasters in 1996.
See also
External link
- NHC Hurricane Fran Preliminary Report (http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/1996fran.html)