The wind field of Hurricane Arthur as observed by a dense coastal mesoscale network

Hurricane Arthur made landfall near Beaufort, North Carolina during the late evening of 03 July 2014. Over the next 6 hours Arthur traveled northeast along the Pamlico Sound, impacting the majority of the North Carolina Outer Banks. This path enabled the storm to be uniquely well-sampled by many surface observation stations. Among these were 17 coastal mesonet stations operated by WeatherFlow and its partners. In addition, the eye of Arthur passed over a 116 m-tall communications tower located at Stumpy Point, NC instrumented with six anemometers at three distinct heights. An analysis of the evolution of the surface wind field as observed by the surface observation stations is presented along with a special focus on the vertical lower-boundary layer structure of the storm as it passed over the instrumented tower.