08/26/2026
Date: August 26, 1998
Lowest Pressure: 28.64 inches of Mercury, 969.9 millibars
The mid to late 1990s featured an intense period of hurricane activity along the North Carolina coast. Within the span of just four years Hurricanes Bertha, Fran, Bonnie, and Floyd struck the southeastern corner of North Carolina. Bonnie was the third of these storms to affect the increasingly hurricane-weary Carolinas.
Bonnie became a tropical storm while about 300 miles east of the northern Windward Islands on August 20th. Bonnie strengthened into a hurricane while north of Puerto Rico during the evening of August 21st, then turned northwestward toward the Southeastern United States. Bonnie remained east of the Bahamas and attained category 3 intensity on August 23rd with maximum sustained winds around 115 mph.
Once Bonnie was as far north as Charleston, SC the hurricane turned north-northeastward raking the coast of Brunswick, New Hanover and Pender counties with the western portion of the eyewall during the evening of August 26th. The center of the eye remained barely 10 miles off the coast from Bald Head Island north to Wrightsville Beach. Fortunately the storm was weakening and maximum sustained winds decreased to 110 mph as Bonnie approached, but was still a strong category 2 hurricane. Landfall was near Surf City at the Pender/Onslow county line around midnight on August 27th.
In Wilmington winds gusted to 74 mph at the airport and 9.04 inches of rain fell. Winds were stronger at the beaches where a gust to 89 mph was measured in Kure Beach. With most southeastern North Carolina beaches remaining west of the landfall point, storm surge values were lower compared to what likely occurred east of the center. Tides along the New Hanover county coast reached 7 to 9 feet. Power was lost to 800,000 people across coastal North Carolina. There were also agricultural losses due to saltwater flooding of to***co, corn, cotton and soybean fields.
With three significant hurricane strikes in just three years, the Wilmington Star-News ran an interesting article discussing historical precedents to active periods of local hurricane activity. Bonnie was the weakest of the four significant hurricane strikes of the mid and late 1990s but still packed a wallop. Damage in New Hanover and Brunswick Counties was estimated at around $20 million each. In the North Topsail Beach approximately 600 homes suffered damage and ten structures were condemned due to significant damage. Inland, Columbus County officials estimated damage at $2.1 million not including crop damage and debris removal costs.
