Special Marine Warning Issued for North Carolina Coastal Waters
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NWS Newport/Morehead City NC has issued a Special Marine Warning for multiple marine zones off the North Carolina coast until 2:30 AM EDT 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
- North Carolina Coastal Waters
- Issued
- August 24, 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: publication date is recent, but current status is not stored on this page. Check the issuing agency's live warning service before acting because warnings can be updated, narrowed, or cancelled.
Alert Details
A Special Marine Warning has been issued by the National Weather Service in Newport/Morehead City NC. The alert is effective from August 24, 2026 at 1:27 AM EDT until August 24, 2026 at 2:30 AM EDT.
Affected Areas
The warning covers the following zones:
- S of Oregon Inlet NC to Cape Hatteras NC out to 20 NM
- S of Cape Hatteras NC to Ocracoke Inlet NC out to 20 NM
- S of Ocracoke Inlet NC to Cape Lookout NC out to 20 NM
- Waters from Oregon Inlet to Cape Hatteras NC from 20 to 60 NM
- Waters from Cape Hatteras to Ocracoke Inlet NC from 20 to 60 NM
- Waters from Ocracoke Inlet to Cape Lookout NC from 20 to 60 NM
Impacted locations include Diamond Shoals and Monitor Marine Sanctuary.
What You Should Do
Move to safe harbor immediately as gusty winds and high waves are expected. Small craft could be damaged in briefly higher winds and suddenly higher waves.
Expected Conditions
At 1:26 AM EDT, a strong thunderstorm was located 12 nm southwest of Monitor Marine Sanctuary, moving northeast at 25 knots. Hazard includes wind gusts to 40 knots.
Timeline
The alert is in effect from 1:27 AM EDT to 2:30 AM EDT on August 24, 2026.
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 (1,169 characters here).
Similar severity timing
Same severity (high) notices issued closest in time to August 24, 2026.
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