At the beginning of July, a frontal boundary extending across the southeastern United States moved over the adjacent Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico waters and stalled. A few days later, a low pressure center formed along the decaying front just east of Florida. During the afternoon of July 4, this system developed into Tropical Depression Three.
The cyclone was beset by wind shear out of the southwest, which pushed most convection northeast of the center. Despite this, it strengthened into Tropical Storm Chantal and continued to steadily intensify. Chantal's sustained winds briefly peaked at 60mph before it made landfall along the South Carolina coastline near the North Carolina border during the early morning hours of July 6. The system moved northward and gradually weakened, bringing localized heavy rain well inland. Chantal transitioned to a post-tropical cyclone and began to recurve northeastward on July 7. By that night, it had quit land for the north Atlantic.
The image above shows Chantal not long before its landfall in South Carolina.
Because of the lopsidedness of Chantal's structure, its greatest impacts were east of the track, particularly over coastal North Carolina.
