DestinationFAY

But from late May to fall, the combination of heat and humidity can make outdoor activity a sticky sauna. The average high temperature in summer is about 92 degrees, but it's gotten as hot as 110 degrees in Fayetteville. That stands as the hottest recorded temperature in North Carolina. Want a nice, sunshiny day for an outdoor event? Pick Oct. 30. Historically, that's the day least likely to see precipitation. The most likely rainy day is Aug. 6. Fayetteville's lively climate is primarily a result of location. Nestled in a geographic area called the Sandhills of North Carolina, the region is subject to summer heat and humidity working north from the Gulf of Mexico. Summer conditions are more akin to northern Florida than the North Carolina mountains. The jet stream tends to draw moisture and heat north during the spring and summer, pulling it east of the Appalachian Mountains. We get occasional relief when cooling breezes from the Atlantic work inland. Even then, Fayetteville is never far from heat. The temperature has topped 100 degrees in October, and we've seen 80-plus degree days every month but January for the past five years. That combination of warmth and humidity creates a climate of potential severe weather much of the year. Strong storms, some spawning tornadoes, can occur every spring. Fayetteville suffered a severe EF-3 tornado that ripped through the northern part of the city in 2011 and recorded one of the state's only three February F3 tornadoes in 1971. Summers give way to languid heat, punctuated by scattered afternoon showers. The average daily high temperature slips above 90 degrees in June and doesn't drop again until September. When humidity is factored in, the city can see several consecutive days above 100 degrees on the heat index. Late summer to early fall is the peak of hurricane season, when storms form off the African coast and churn across the Atlantic. Several storms have spent their share of wind and rain here. In 1954, Hurricane Hazel lashed the city with winds topping 100 mph. Hurricane Fran in 1996 was even more destructive, while hurricanes Matthew and Florence in the past decade unleased historic deluges. It may seem strange that a place that gets so warm could also see major snowstorms, but Fayetteville has a history of winter weather. Geography helps insulate the city from the crippling ice storms that hit the Piedmont and Foothills, but we've had snowfalls as early as late November and as late as early spring. Snow totals of a half-foot or more are common historically, including a white Christmas as recently as 2010. From late May to fall, the combination of heat and humidity can make outdoor activity a sticky sauna. The average high temperature in summer is about 92 degrees, but it's gotten as hot as 110 degrees in Fayetteville. That stands as the hottest recorded temperature in North Carolina. Snow totals of a half-foot or more are common historically, including a white Christmas as recently as 2010. 7 DestinationFAY 2021-2022

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