A storm that comes ashore on the coast can still bring trees down in the Piedmont.

NOAA's National Hurricane Center dates the Atlantic hurricane season from June 1 to November 30, and notes that activity sometimes occurs before and after those dates. It puts the peak at September 10, with most activity between mid-August and mid-October: a climatological average, not a forecast for any one year.

The NC State Climate Office explains the September peak by the ocean having taken in the whole summer's heating without starting to cool. The rest of the year, one month at a time, sits on the Davidson County tree calendar.

Storms weaken over land, but the NC State Climate Office says strong storms like Hazel and Hugo "can still pack a punch hundreds of miles inland," and that the corridor from Charlotte into the Triad is not immune. The same office says all parts of North Carolina have experienced tropical impacts, and that even the Piedmont has seen the full range of them in recent years.

The NC State Climate Office records Hugo making landfall near Charleston at Category 4 around midnight on September 22, 1989, says its center passed just west of Charlotte six hours later, still producing hurricane-force gusts, and puts the severe wind damage in a swath from Charlotte through Mount Airy. It calls Hugo unequaled in strength and destruction for the western Piedmont.

The Climate Office has Fran coming ashore near Cape Fear on the evening of September 5, 1996 with 115 mph winds and holding hurricane strength inland, and places its widespread wind damage particularly across the Triangle, on a track directly through Raleigh.

Michael brought wind and rain to North Carolina on October 10 to 11, 2018, and the Climate Office says the Piedmont, not the coast, bore the brunt of the state's damage. It names Michael as the one storm since Hugo to topple trees in remotely the same way across the western Piedmont. In the Triad it reports a 55 mph gust and around 5 inches of rain.

The Climate Office says Helene's remnants, capping the frontal rain ahead of them on September 25 to 27, 2024, left catastrophic flooding in the Mountains and southern Foothills. In the Piedmont it records tropical storm-force gusts, including 66 mph at the Charlotte airport.

Chantal, the Climate Office says, made landfall on the coast to the south as a moderate tropical storm on July 6, 2025, weakened to a depression inland, and brought rain rather than wind as the primary hazard, with big impacts "in areas such as" Alamance, Chatham, Moore and Orange counties.

None of these records names Davidson County, Lexington or Thomasville, and this page does not place these storms there. Local storms are dated on the Davidson County storm log.

The Climate Office says Michael's rain arrived ahead of its strongest winds and saturated the ground, so that trees were even more likely to go over when strong gusts hit. The National Weather Service's assessment of Fran says strong inland winds coupled with saturated ground left several hundred thousand trees uprooted or broken. Those are two storms' accounts, not a law.

NC State Extension lists shallow, compacted or waterlogged soil and confined root space among the site conditions of trees at risk in storms, and calls girdling roots a weak spot that is often the point of failure. Whether any of that describes a particular tree takes someone standing under it to say.

ReadyNC, North Carolina Emergency Management's preparedness site, says to trim trees and shrubs around the home "so they are more wind resistant," and the National Weather Service lists trimming trees among its hurricane preparation steps. Neither names a month; with the season opening June 1, the plain reading is before the season.

NC State Extension's prevention list is the trade's checklist for that look: co-dominant leaders, cavities or hollow areas, leaning trees, girdling roots and decay. It says to remove dead, dying, diseased or damaged limbs, and branches within 30 feet of houses or structures, and not to top trees, because cutting back to a stub promotes weakly attached branches likely to be damaged in future storms. The list says what to look for, not the state of any one tree; for a big tree over the roof, that is the case for a walk-through in calm weather.

NC State Extension's reasons to bring in a tree care professional include when a crane or other large equipment will be needed, when power lines are in the area, and when property damage is possible. A large tree over a house can meet all three at once.

Arbor Aves' own storm advisory names its certified crane operator and tree climbers. When a crane suits a removal is explained under crane-assisted tree removal, and the setup a lot has to allow is in what a crane needs from your lot. For a tree already down, start with the first hour after a tree hits your house, then 24-hour emergency tree service.