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Hurricane Connie (1955)

Hurricane Connie was a Category 4 hurricane at its peak, with 138 mph winds and a lowest pressure of 944 mb, per NOAA's National Hurricane Center. Modeled winds reached tropical-storm force (39 mph) at 12 of the cities we track; the strongest was Virginia Beach, VA, with a modeled peak gust of 82 mph.

Peak strength138 mph winds (1-minute)
Category 4
Cities with tropical-storm-force windsModeled, of the cities we track
12
LandfallsFirst August 12, 1955
1
Lowest pressure
944 mb

Track, wind field and cities

Select a piece of the track or a city for details.

  • Depression or weaker
  • Tropical storm
  • Hurricane, Category 1 or 2
  • Major hurricane, Category 3 to 5
  • Landfall
  • City (larger ring, stronger modeled gust)
  • Modeled wind field, 39 to 111 mph sustained (darker, stronger; orange 111 mph+)
Source: NOAA/NWS National Hurricane Center best track (HURDAT2). City winds and the wind field are modeled.

The shaded areas are where our model puts Hurricane Connie’s sustained winds over open land at 39 mph or more (tropical-storm force), 58, 74 (hurricane force) and 111 mph (major hurricane force) at some point along its track. Modeled, not measured. How we model hurricane winds

Landfalls

  1. August 12, 1955, Category 2 at 98 mph, about 76 miles from Wilmington, NC

Modeled winds at cities (12)

Estimated peak winds for open, flat ground at each city’s center. Not measurements. How we model hurricane winds

CityPeak gustSustainedClosest passPeak
Virginia Beach, VA82 mph67 mph6 milesAug 12, 1955, 8:00 PM GMT-4
Wilmington, NC81 mph66 mph61 milesAug 12, 1955, 7:45 AM GMT-4
Lancaster, PA55 mph44 mph41 milesAug 13, 1955, 10:30 AM GMT-4
Baltimore, MD52 mph43 mph5 milesAug 13, 1955, 6:15 AM GMT-4
Myrtle Beach, SC52 mph42 mph113 milesAug 12, 1955, 12:15 AM GMT-4
York, PA51 mph42 mph18 milesAug 13, 1955, 9:30 AM GMT-4
Harrisburg, PA50 mph41 mph19 milesAug 13, 1955, 10:45 AM GMT-4
Raleigh, NC50 mph41 mph127 milesAug 12, 1955, 1:45 PM GMT-4
Richmond, VA50 mph41 mph70 milesAug 12, 1955, 10:45 PM GMT-4
Washington, DC49 mph40 mph25 milesAug 13, 1955, 4:45 AM GMT-4
Fayetteville, NC49 mph40 mph132 milesAug 12, 1955, 11:00 AM GMT-4
Reading, PA49 mph40 mph67 milesAug 13, 1955, 11:15 AM GMT-4

What happened

Connie, first detected over the tropical Atlantic on August 3, 1955, made landfall near Fort Macon, North Carolina, on August 12.1 NHC's best track puts landfall at 1500 UTC (10 a.m. EST) with sustained winds of 85 knots (98 mph) and a central pressure of 962 mb.2

Fort Macon observed sustained winds of 75 mph with gusts to 100 mph, and storm surge reached up to 8 feet along the coast.1 Wilmington measured gusts to 83 mph.3 Wind and surge flooding caused considerable damage from Myrtle Beach north along the whole North Carolina coast, and newspapers reported five tornadoes in eastern South Carolina and one in North Carolina.3 More than 10 inches of rain fell along and west of the landfall point, and the worst flooding in eastern North Carolina was along the Pamlico River at Washington.1 Rain of up to 12 inches fell in the northeastern United States, soaking the ground ahead of Hurricane Diane's floods about a week later.4,3 NWS Morehead City puts damage in North Carolina at nearly $40 million, much of it to crops, and counts 27 deaths in the state.1

Sources

  1. 1. NWS Newport/Morehead City: Hurricane Connie, August 12, 1955
  2. 2. NOAA National Hurricane Center: Atlantic hurricane database (HURDAT2), 1851 to 2023
  3. 3. NWS Wilmington, NC: Top 20 Storms in Wilmington, North Carolina's History
  4. 4. NOAA National Hurricane Center: Hurricanes in History

Best track (49 positions)

TimeStatusWindPressurePosition
Aug 3, 06:00 UTCTropical depression35 mph15.3°N, 40.0°W
Aug 3, 12:00 UTCTropical storm40 mph15.7°N, 42.1°W
Aug 3, 18:00 UTCTropical storm46 mph1004 mb16.1°N, 44.2°W
Aug 4, 00:00 UTCTropical storm58 mph16.4°N, 46.0°W
Aug 4, 06:00 UTCTropical storm69 mph16.7°N, 47.7°W
Aug 4, 12:00 UTCCategory 1 hurricane81 mph17.0°N, 49.3°W
Aug 4, 18:00 UTCCategory 1 hurricane81 mph17.4°N, 50.9°W
Aug 5, 00:00 UTCCategory 1 hurricane81 mph17.7°N, 52.3°W
Aug 5, 06:00 UTCCategory 1 hurricane81 mph18.0°N, 54.2°W
Aug 5, 12:00 UTCCategory 1 hurricane86 mph18.3°N, 56.1°W
Aug 5, 18:00 UTCCategory 1 hurricane86 mph985 mb18.5°N, 57.9°W
Aug 6, 00:00 UTCCategory 1 hurricane92 mph18.7°N, 59.5°W
Show all 49