Everything on this page comes straight from a federal feed and is rebuilt every morning: the National Weather Service surf zone forecast, its active alerts, and NOAA’s own water temperature, tide and buoy readings. Nobody types it in by hand.
Anything in effect right now
Rip currents and surf, stretch by stretch
The Weather Service writes this forecast for three stretches of beach. A moderate risk means life-threatening rip currents are possible in the surf; a high risk means they are likely. Rip currents run hardest beside piers, groins and any structure sticking into the water, whatever the day’s rating says.
Northern Outer Banks
Duck, Southern Shores, Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills and Nags Head
Rip current risk: ModerateMonday: rip current risk Moderate.
Hatteras Island
Rodanthe to Hatteras village and the Cape
Rip current risk: North of Cape Hatteras: Moderate; South of Cape Hatteras: LowMonday: rip current risk North of Cape Hatteras: Moderate; South of Cape Hatteras: Low.
Ocracoke Island
the whole island, ferry dock to Ocracoke Inlet
Rip current risk: LowMonday: rip current risk Low.
Surf Zone Forecast issued September 20 at 3:00 am by the National Weather Service in Newport/Morehead City. Corolla and Carova sit north of the Duck-to-Nags Head zone; the northern forecast is the closest one to them.
Water temperature right now
| Station | Water | Reading taken |
|---|---|---|
| Duck Pier | 79°F | 6:30 am |
| Jennette’s Pier, Nags Head | no reading | |
| Oregon Inlet Marina | 79°F | 6:30 am |
| Hatteras, ocean side | 81°F | 6:30 am |
NOAA Tides & Currents gauges. These are single points at the gauge, not the whole beach — a wind shift can swing the surf temperature 10 to 15 degrees in a day. Our water temperature page has the month-by-month picture.
Tides today
| Station | High | Low |
|---|---|---|
| Duck Pier | 2:52 am (2.7 ft) · 3:28 pm (3.4 ft) | 8:46 am (1.3 ft) · 10:00 pm (1.2 ft) |
| Jennette’s Pier, Nags Head | 2:47 am (2.8 ft) · 3:23 pm (3.6 ft) | 8:47 am (1.8 ft) · 10:01 pm (1.7 ft) |
| Oregon Inlet Marina | 4:01 am (1.0 ft) · 4:11 pm (1.2 ft) | 9:55 am (0.5 ft) · 10:48 pm (0.6 ft) |
| Cape Hatteras Fishing Pier | 2:53 am (2.3 ft) · 3:37 pm (3.2 ft) | 8:45 am (0.9 ft) · 10:15 pm (1.0 ft) |
| Ocracoke, Pamlico Sound | 2:30 am (0.8 ft) · 3:57 pm (1.0 ft) | 9:18 am (0.5 ft) · 11:09 pm (0.6 ft) |
NOAA predictions in feet above mean lower low water, for Sunday, September 20. Wind moves the sound tides more than the moon does; a hard west wind can hold the water out of the sound for a day. Full tables: Outer Banks tide charts.
What the buoys are reading
| Buoy | Wave height | Wave period | Water | Wind |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Duck, about 11 miles offshore | 4.9 ft | 7 sec | 78°F | — |
| Nags Head, about 12 miles offshore | 5.2 ft | 9 sec | 78°F | — |
| Oregon Inlet, about 11 miles offshore | 4.9 ft | 8 sec | 78°F | — |
| Diamond Shoals, about 18 miles off Cape Hatteras | — | — | 85°F | ESE 11 mph, gusting 16 |
National Data Buoy Center, latest observation from each buoy. Wave period is the gap between wave crests: a long period with a small height is groundswell arriving from far off, and it breaks harder on the bar than the number suggests.
Light and moon today
Sunrise 6:49 am, sunset 7:02 pm — 12 hours 13 minutes of daylight, timed for Nags Head. There is usable light from about 6:23 am until about 7:28 pm, which is the window that matters if you are walking out to the beach in the dark. Ocracoke, farther west, runs a minute or two later. The whole year, month by month.
Moon: waxing gibbous, 67% lit — moonset 12:32 am, moonrise 3:50 pm. Times from the US Naval Observatory.
What this page does not tell you
Three things change faster than a daily rebuild and live on their own pages: which beach ramps are open, rebuilt every morning from the Park Service’s own list; the ferry schedules and the line at Hatteras; and the live cameras, which are the fastest honest answer to what the beach actually looks like this minute. For radar and the hour-by-hour forecast, the weather page.