Special Marine Warning Issued for NC Coastal Waters
This alert is no longer in effect.
NOAA issued it on May 16, 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 has issued a Special Marine Warning for waters off North Carolina due to a severe thunderstorm capable of producing waterspouts and 40-knot winds.
Read this weather record in 30 seconds
- Record type
- Special Marine Warning
- Affected area
- North Carolina Offshore Waters
- Issued
- May 16, 2026
- Issuing authority
- NWS Newport/Morehead City 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 North Carolina Offshore Waters.
Alert Details
A Special Marine Warning has been issued by the National Weather Service in Newport/Morehead City NC. The alert is effective from 10:36 AM EDT until 11:30 AM EDT on May 9, 2026.
Affected Areas
The warning covers waters from Cape Hatteras to Ocracoke Inlet NC from 20 to 60 NM and waters from Ocracoke Inlet to Cape Lookout NC from 20 to 60 NM.
What You Should Do
Move to safe harbor until hazardous weather passes. Seek safe harbor immediately as thunderstorms can produce sudden waterspouts.
Expected Conditions
A severe thunderstorm capable of producing waterspouts and wind gusts to 40 knots was located 36 nm east of Atlas Tanker, moving east at 15 knots.
Timeline
The warning is in effect from 10:36 AM EDT to 11:30 AM EDT on May 9, 2026.
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 (776 characters here).
Similar severity timing
Same severity (high) notices issued closest in time to May 16, 2026.
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Common questions about this NWS weather alert.