Introduction
During the month of June, with the return both of summer and the hurricane season, the State Library of North Carolina is celebrating weather. The climate varies across the state, and creates the ideal spring and summer environment to support the many agricultural products produced here, as well as making our ocean fronts and mountains the ideal places to escape to at the peak of the hot and humid growing season. From June to September, North Carolina's climate is abundant with moisture, warm temperatures, and growing seasons ranging from about 130 days in the mountains to about 290 days at the coast.
Our lush summer season, cool clear springs and autumns, and temperate winters are not without climatic challenges, however. Floods, droughts, ice storms, hurricanes, and tornadoes, all can wreak havoc on the land and its people. Some of the most devastating of these weather events were the droughts of the late 1920s and early 2000s, and the ice storms of the 1960s and 1978. Documented hurricanes that have been hitting our shores since before 1667 (when four hurricanes hit the Southeast) through the 20th century, when Hazel, Fran, and Floyd brought rain, winds, and flooding deep inland. This month we highlight resources to help you keep abreast of current weather, and to learn about and respect North Carolina's historical weather patterns.
