North Carolina has three major geographic regions. The Coastal Plain makes up around half the state. It is made up of gently rolling lands and a swampy tidewater area close to the coastline. A long chain of islands, the Outer Banks, extends from Virginia to South Carolina, and is made up of sand dunes that can reach 100 feet (30 metres) or more in height. In this area, Cape Hatteras, Cape Lookout, and Cape Fear jut into the ocean.
The Piedmont region is an area of rolling, forested hills. The ridges and hills of the eastern Piedmont may be the remains of an ancient mountain chain. The Appalachian Mountain region includes the Blue Ridge Mountains in the east. These mountains rise to heights of 6,000 feet (1,800 metres) and higher. In the far west are the Great Smoky Mountains, which roll westward into Tennessee. Mount Mitchell, rising to 6,684 feet (2,037 metres), is the highest peak in North Carolina, and the highest peak east of the Mississippi.
The Outer Banks are located in an area known as the “graveyard of the Atlantic,” because of the many ships that have sunk in its dangerous waters. The shallow Pamlico and Albemarle sounds and broad salt marshes lying behind the Outer Banks are valuable habitats for marine life but are also dangerous for ships.
North Carolina rivers include the Hiwassee, Little Tennessee, French Broad, Watauga, and New rivers, which flow from the mountains westward to the Mississippi River. The Blue Ridge, the Chowan, Roanoke, Tar, Neuse, Cape Fear, Yadkin, and Catawba rivers run from the piedmont and coastal plain region. The Roanoke River flows southeast from Virginia to the ocean at Albermarle Sound. The Little Tennessee and French Broad rivers flow northwest from the mountains of North Carolina into Tennessee.
Lake Mattamuskeet is North Carolina’s largest natural lake. There are also many lakes in the Catawaba River basin in the Piedmont and Appalachian regions. The largest artificial lakes in North Carolina are Lake Norman on the Catawba, Lake Gaston on the Roanoke, and High Rock Lake on the Yadkin.
North Carolina has a humid, subtropical climate. Winters are short and mild, while summers are hot and sticky. Spring and fall are usually the most refreshing time of the year. In most of North Carolina, temperatures rarely go above 100°F (38°C) or fall below 10°F (-12°C). Average January temperatures range from 36°F (21°C) to 48°F (9°C). Average July temperatures range from 68°F (20°C) to 80°F (27°C). The coldest temperature ever recorded in North Carolina was -34°F (-37°C), recorded on 21 January 1985 on Mt. Mitchell; the hottest, 110°F (43°C), occurred on 21 August 1983 at Fayetteville.
In the southwestern section of the Blue Ridge, moist winds rise over the mountains and drop more than 80 in (203 cm) of rain each year, making this region the wettest in the eastern U.S. The other side of the mountains gets less than half that amount of rain. Charlotte averages around 44 in (112 cm) of rain each year; the piedmont gets around 48in (122cm) of rain each year; while up to 56in (142cm) fall on the coastal plain. Average winter snowfalls vary from 50in (127cm) on Mt. Mitchell to only a trace amount at Cape Hatteras.
Late summer and early autumn is hurricane season in the eastern part of North Carolina. Since 1980, more than 120 tropical storms or hurricanes have hit North Carolina. In 1984, Two of the biggest hurricanes were Floyd, in 1999, and Fran, in 1996.
