RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – Thursday, Sept. 14 is the fifth anniversary of when Hurricane Florence made landfall in North Carolina.

At its strongest, it was a Category 4 storm with sustained winds of 150 miles per hour, but by the time it made landfall early in the morning of the 14th near Wrightsville Beach it was a Category 1 storm. But that “downgrade” didn’t mean a thing.

Florence was nearly stationary after landfall meaning literal feet of rain fell, cutting off towns, closing more than 2000 roads, including parts of I-40 and I-95, which were shut down for the better part of a week.

In fact, it’s estimated all that water measured roughly 8 trillion gallons, which flooded rivers, streams, and all those roads across our state.

But Florence isn’t the only storm that has hit N.C. this time of year. Saturday, Sept. 16 is the 24th anniversary of Hurricane Floyd, which like so many hurricanes that impact N.C. started out in the open waters of the eastern Atlantic.

It moved west before taking a north turn and made landfall early in the morning of the 16th near Cape Fear as a Category 2. Floyd also brought significant flooding to N.C.

While Hurricane Fran’s anniversary has already passed, it’s still yet another storm that impacted us in a big way in September. When Fran made landfall 27 years ago, also near Cape Fear, it was a Category 3 hurricane.

A storm surge of 12 feet was recorded near North Topsail Island,  and strong winds brought down trees and damaged buildings here in the Triangle.

Other than being destructive, the other thing each of these storms had in common is they all began with the letter F.

We are fortunate we’ve had no direct impact here at home this year due to tropical weather, but September is an active month so stay weather aware.