Special Marine Warning Issued for Coastal Waters from Surf City to Cape Fear NC
This alert is no longer in effect.
NOAA issued it on May 19, 2026, 3 months ago. Warnings of this kind stay in effect for hours to a few days, so this page is a historical record of what was issued, not a current warning. For conditions where you are right now, check weather.gov (US), weather.gc.ca (Canada), the Met Office (UK), or the Bureau of Meteorology (Australia).
Areazine synthesizes this NWS weather alert directly from NOAA's official public data feed. See our methodology for full source attribution and refresh cadence.
NWS Wilmington NC has issued a Special Marine Warning for coastal waters from Surf City to Cape Fear NC out 20 nm until 1:45 PM EDT due to strong thunderstorms with 40-knot wind gusts.
Read this weather record in 30 seconds
- Record type
- Special Marine Warning
- Affected area
- Coastal North Carolina
- Issued
- May 19, 2026
- Issuing authority
- NWS Wilmington NC
Marine notices apply to named waters or shoreline zones. They may not describe conditions on land, even when the nearest place name is the same.
Record status: historical. It was issued 3 months ago; use the issuing agency's live warning service for current conditions in Coastal North Carolina.
Alert Details
A Special Marine Warning has been issued by the National Weather Service in Wilmington NC. The alert is effective from May 11 at 12:51 PM EDT until May 11 at 1:45 PM EDT.
Affected Areas
Coastal waters from Surf City to Cape Fear NC out 20 nm. Locations impacted include 10 Mile Boxcars, Liberty Ship, Dallas Rock, Billy Murrell Reef, Masonboro Sea Buoy, Harris Reef, 10 Mile Rocks, Topsail Boxcars, Topsail Tire Reef, 5 Mile Boxcars, Johnny Mercer Pier, North Masonboro Island, and Carolina Beach.
What You Should Do
Boaters should seek safe harbor immediately until these storms pass. If caught on the open water, prepare for deteriorating conditions. Make sure you and your crew are wearing properly fitted life jackets.
Expected Conditions
At 12:51 PM EDT, strong thunderstorms were located along a line extending from 7 nm northwest of Wrightsville Beach to 8 nm northwest of Snows Cut, moving east at 25 knots. Hazard includes wind gusts to 40 knots. Small craft could be damaged in briefly higher winds and suddenly higher waves.
Timeline
The warning is in effect from May 11 at 12:51 PM EDT and expires at 1:45 PM EDT.
Original source: NOAA Official Notice ↗
Related Weather Alerts
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Two Areazine-derived peer sets for this NWS weather alert: nearest notices by body length and by same severity near the same agency date. Peers come from other categories so they are not the same-feed Related list above.
Similar body length
Nearest notices by article body length (1,158 characters here).
Similar severity timing
Same severity (high) notices issued closest in time to May 19, 2026.
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