NC ECONet

To aid in the improvement of local forecasts across the state, the SCO has developed a comprehensive network of weather stations that, in its entirety, would provide at least one station to each of the 100 counties in NC. This monitoring system is known as the North Carolina Environment and Climate Observing Network (NC ECONet).

Developing, maintaining, and expanding the NC ECONet has been one of the SCO's top priorities since its initiation. There are currently stations within this network that measure variables such as solar radiation, photosynthetically active radiation, evapotranspiration, soil temperature, and soil moisture, in additon to standard weather parameters.

Hurricanes

North Carolina has a long and notorious history of destruction by hurricanes. Ever since the first expeditions to Roanoke Island in 1586, hurricanes are recorded to have caused tremendous damage to the state. Reliable classification of the intensity of tropical cyclones began in 1886. Since that time, there have been 951 tropical cyclones that have been recorded in the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. Approximately 166 or 17.5% of those tropical cyclones passed within 300 miles of North Carolina.

The coast of North Carolina can expect to receive a tropical storm or a hurricane once every four years, while a tropical cyclone affects the state every 1.3 years.

Tornadoes

A tornado is a column of violently rotating air, spawned by a thunderstorm, which is connected from the thunderstorm cloud to the ground. It often appears funnel shaped or as a column of debris.
Tornadoes are one of nature's most violent storms. They may develop suddenly, and may contain winds that reach over 250 mph. Tornadoes are a threat to human life and responsible for millions of dollars worth of property damage each year in North Carolina.

Thunderstorms

A thunderstorm is a local storm that produces lightning and thunder. It can consist of a single cumulonimbus cloud, a cluster of clouds, or a line of clouds.
Thunderstorms form when moist, unstable air near the surface is lifted. This lifting can be caused by thermals generated from a strongly heated surface, the forcing of air upward along a frontal surface or terrain surfaces, or by the upward motion produced by winds converging near the surface. Thunderstorms are generally transient phenomena that last anywhere from 10 minutes to several hours. Thunderstorms are often accompanied by showery rain and gusty winds, and may also bring hail or snow.

Air Quality

In most summers North Carolina's weather is dominated by the "Bermuda High" pressure system. This gives calm, virtually cloudless conditions where any pollution placed into the atmosphere remains suspended for an extended period of time. Fortunately, compared to many other states, North Carolina does not support activities which emit great quantities of pollution.

But automobile traffic in the major cities, along with some paper producing and energy generation plants can cause local problems for short periods of time. Additionally, with our winds coming predominantly from a westerly direction, North Carolina also receives pollution from a suite of upwind states. On occasion this can severely reduce visibility in the western mountains, and has been regarded as a major contributor to the presence of acid rain on some of the highest peaks.

Winter Weather

Winter weather (i.e. snow, sleet, freezing rain) occurs with the greatest frequency in the northern latitudes (e.g. New England and the Midwest) and higher altitudes (e.g. the Rocky Mountains ). However, such weather regularly affects the southeastern United States as far south as Georgia during each cold season. In fact, the impacts of winter weather in the Southeast have been recorded as early as the first week of October and as late as mid-April.

What separates our response to winter weather in this region, particularly in the Piedmont and Coastal Plain, from that of our more northern and western neighbors, is the lack of a sufficient utility infrastructure to effectively handle these events.