Special Marine Warning Issued for NC Coastal Waters South of Cape Lookout to Surf City
This alert is no longer in effect.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 has issued a Special Marine Warning for waters south of Cape Lookout NC to Surf City NC out to 60 NM due to strong thunderstorms with 40-knot winds and small hail.
Read this weather record in 30 seconds
- Record type
- Special Marine Warning
- Affected area
- Coastal Waters of North Carolina
- Issued
- May 19, 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 Coastal Waters of North Carolina.
Alert Details
A Special Marine Warning (event code MAW) was issued by the National Weather Service Newport/Morehead City NC office. The alert is effective from May 11, 2026 at 1:25 PM EDT until May 11, 2026 at 2:15 PM EDT.
Affected Areas
The warning covers S of Cape Lookout NC to Surf City NC out to 20 NM and waters from Cape Lookout to Surf City NC from 20 to 60 NM. Impacted locations include Morgan Bay, New River Inlet, Stones Bay, Bogue Inlet, Emerald Isle, and areas near Highway 24-17 Bridge, Emerald Isle Bridge, and Sneads Ferry Bridge.
What You Should Do
Move to safe harbor immediately. If caught on open water, stay below deck if possible and keep away from ungrounded metal objects due to frequent lightning.
Expected Conditions
At 1:25 PM EDT, strong thunderstorms were located along a line from near Stones Bay to near Topsail Boxcars, moving northeast at 40 knots. Hazards include wind gusts to 40 knots and small hail.
Timeline
The warning is in effect from 1:25 PM EDT to 2:15 PM EDT on May 11, 2026.
Original source: NOAA Official Notice ↗
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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 (1,039 characters here).
Similar severity timing
Same severity (high) notices issued closest in time to May 19, 2026.
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