Around September 18, a frontal boundary moved off the U.S. east coast over the Atlantic ocean. The southern end of the front stalled not too far from shore. A non-tropical low formed along that southern edge, just north of the Bahamas, on September 21. The low moved generally north or north-northwest and deepened rather quickly over the next day. During the afternoon of September 22, an area of deep convection developed on the western side of the storm, spiraling north and east away from the center. Though the system was asymmetric, satellite and aircraft reconaissance measurements indicated it had transitioned to a tropical storm. Therefore, it was named Tropical Storm Ophelia.
Ophelia was in an environment of rather strong shear and suffered from the aforementioned asymmetry. Despite this, it managed to strengthen some more as it approached land. The cyclone made landfall in North Carolina early on September 23 at its peak intensity of 70 mph winds and a pressure of 981 mb. The large system slowly pushed inland that day and gradually weakened, but brought a large area of storm surge, heavy rain, and tropical storm force winds to the mid-Atlantic. It weakened to a tropical depression that evening and became post-tropical shortly thereafter while located over southeastern Virginia. What was left of Ophelia turned north and then east, bringing more steady rain to the northeast as it weakened.
The above image shows Ophelia a few hours after becoming a tropical storm on September 22.
At the time Ophelia made landfall in North Carolina, the large storm's impacts were already being felt over an area that extended much further north.
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