Special Marine Warning Issued for NC and SC Coastal Waters
This alert is no longer in effect.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 Cape Fear NC to South Santee River SC due to a strong thunderstorm producing wind gusts to 40 knots.
Read this weather record in 30 seconds
- Record type
- Special Marine Warning
- Affected area
- Coastal Waters off North Carolina and South 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 Waters off North Carolina and South 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, 2026 at 2:53 PM EDT until May 11, 2026 at 4:00 PM EDT.
Affected Areas
The warning covers:
- Coastal waters from Cape Fear NC to Little River Inlet SC out 20 NM
- Coastal waters from Little River Inlet to Murrells Inlet SC out 20 NM
- Waters from Surf City NC to Little River Inlet SC from 20 to 60 NM
- Waters from Little River Inlet SC to South Santee River SC from 20 to 60 NM
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. Move to safe harbor immediately as gusty winds and high waves are expected.
Expected Conditions
At 2:53 PM EDT, a strong thunderstorm was located over Jungle, 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 alert is in effect from May 11, 2026 at 2:53 PM EDT and expires at 4:00 PM EDT the same day.
Original source: NOAA Official Notice ↗
Related Weather Alerts
All Weather Alerts →Nationwide notices with similar length or severity timing 8
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 (1,173 characters here).
Similar severity timing
Same severity (high) notices issued closest in time to May 19, 2026.
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Common questions about this NWS weather alert.