23-25 December 1989 (Figure 43) 



82. Reinforced by the same mid-western high pressure system that had 

 produced storm waves on 22 December, a storm which developed off the Georgia 

 coast on 23 December quickly intensified into a major blizzard. The storm 

 destroyed several previously damaged oceanfront cottages in the town of Kitty 

 Hawk and produced gale-force winds accompanied by significant quantities of 

 snow. The maximum H^, (Gage 111) of 4.67 m (T p - 10.67 sec) was recorded at 

 1442 EST on 24 December. Offshore (Gage 630), the H,,^ reached 5.63 m (T p 

 - 11.13 sec) at 1300 EST the same day. Peak winds (from the north) approached 

 21 m/sec at 0842 EST, also on 24 December. Winds above 10 m/sec were recorded 

 for 39 consecutive hours. Since the center of the storm remained offshore, 

 the atmospheric pressure at the FRF dropped only to 1,012.5 mb at 1142 EST on 

 24 December. Due to the strong winds, the rain gages failed to collect much 

 of the snowfall. Approximately 20 to 25 cm of snow fell at the FRF with up to 

 36 cm reported at other locations. 



Atmospheric Presoura, mb Gage 616 



Wave Direction, Deg True N 



Figure 43 Data for 23-25 December 1989 storm 



77 



