The East Coast is currently being battered by a highly unusual, late-September nor’easter, bringing fierce winds, heavy rain, and destructive coastal flooding from the Carolinas up to New England. And North Carolina’s Outer Banks are taking a major beating.
Video from Jennette’s Pier in South Nags Head shows the Atlantic detonating against the structure as heavy surf stacks up beyond it. The New York Post described “18-foot monster waves” battering the pier on September 24, while the National Weather Service warned that a “large and slow moving Nor’easter” would continue impacting eastern North Carolina with hazardous coastal and marine conditions. Forecasters added that “gale force winds and very dangerous seas persist into late week.”
Check out the footage below.
The surf has been every bit as ugly as advertised. Current NWS alerts for the northern Outer Banks call for breaking waves of 10 to 13 feet, while broader forecasts have put waves along the Outer Banks as high as 15 to 18 feet as the storm strengthens and crawls north.
The water isn’t staying in the ocean, either.
At Pea Island, ocean overwash breached protective dunes and flooded N.C. Highway 12, forcing officials to close the road between the Marc Basnight Bridge and Rodanthe. NCDOT says roughly 500 feet of asphalt was undermined or broken. The Weather Service warned of 1 to 3 feet of coastal inundation in low-lying areas, with some southern Outer Banks locations facing 2 to 4 feet.
See footage of waves washing over the highway, linked here, and below:
Farther north, conditions are expected to stay volatile into the weekend. The NWS Weather Prediction Center says the deepening coastal low will bring “coastal flooding, rip currents, wind gusts, and heavy rain” along the East Coast.
For surfers, however, chaos on land can mean opportunity in the water.
New Jersey’s Rob Kelly has already been hunting windows between the wind and weather, posting footage of thick, hollow slabs racing down the beach. Surfline says portions of the Northeast could see overhead to double-overhead surf, with south-facing breaks improving as winds turn more northerly.
So yes, this nor’easter is ripping roads apart and battering piers.
But it’s also producing exactly the sort of wild, fleeting surf East Coast chargers wait all year for.
Stay safe out there.
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