Hurricane Arthur, July 3-4, 2014

Hurricane Arthur - July 3-4, 2014 

Hurricane Arthur is the earliest hurricane to hit North Carolina in a season since records began in 1851.  The previous record was July 11, 1901. It is also the first hurricane to make landfall on the U.S. mainland since Isaac on Aug. 28-29, 2012 and the first Category 2 hurricane in US since Ike 2008.  Arthur developed from a non-tropical area of low pressure over the southeastern United States that emerged into the western Atlantic Ocean on June 28. After sufficiently organizing, developing a well-defined circulation amid a favorable environment, it was classified a tropical depression on July 1. The system continued to strengthen, and was declared a tropical storm later that afternoon. Drifting northward, the storm reached hurricane status early on July 3 and recurved toward the north-northeast in response to a cold front to the north. The storm intensified further, and by late on the evening of July 3,  the system attained its peak winds of 100 mph as a Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson