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
National Weather Service alerts covering Dare, Hyde and Currituck county as of 5:01 pm.
Rip currents and surf, stretch by stretch
The Weather Service writes this forecast for three stretches of beach from April through October, and has now closed it out for the season — the last issuance went out on the evening of October 31 and the next one is due in April 2027. Nothing replaces it here, because inventing a rating would be worse than showing none. Rip currents run hardest beside piers, groins and any structure sticking into the water, in winter as much as in summer.
Northern Outer Banks
Duck, Southern Shores, Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills and Nags Head
Rip current risk: not issued — off seasonThe Weather Service stopped issuing the Surf Zone Forecast for this stretch on October 31 and resumes in April 2027, so there is no rip current rating, surf height or UV index to show today. Rip currents still form here through the winter. The buoy and water temperature tables below are live.
Hatteras Island
Rodanthe to Hatteras village and the Cape
Rip current risk: not issued — off seasonThe Weather Service stopped issuing the Surf Zone Forecast for this stretch on October 31 and resumes in April 2027, so there is no rip current rating, surf height or UV index to show today. Rip currents still form here through the winter. The buoy and water temperature tables below are live.
Ocracoke Island
the whole island, ferry dock to Ocracoke Inlet
Rip current risk: not issued — off seasonThe Weather Service stopped issuing the Surf Zone Forecast for this stretch on October 31 and resumes in April 2027, so there is no rip current rating, surf height or UV index to show today. Rip currents still form here through the winter. The buoy and water temperature tables below are live.
Final Surf Zone Forecast of the season issued Oct 31, 8:00 pm by the National Weather Service in Newport/Morehead City. For winter conditions the Newport/Morehead City forecast office is the live source. 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 | no reading | |
| Jennette’s Pier, Nags Head | no reading | |
| Oregon Inlet Marina | 69°F | 4:54 pm |
| Hatteras, ocean side | 67°F | 4:54 pm |
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 | 3:24 am (3.6 ft) · 3:39 pm (3.5 ft) | 9:29 am (0.6 ft) · 9:51 pm (0.4 ft) |
| Jennette’s Pier, Nags Head | 3:19 am (3.7 ft) · 3:34 pm (3.6 ft) | 9:30 am (0.9 ft) · 9:52 pm (0.5 ft) |
| Oregon Inlet Marina | 3:56 am (1.2 ft) · 4:10 pm (1.2 ft) | 10:27 am (0.5 ft) · 10:52 pm (0.4 ft) |
| Cape Hatteras Fishing Pier | 3:07 am (3.2 ft) · 3:28 pm (3.3 ft) | 9:17 am (0.4 ft) · 9:43 pm (0.3 ft) |
| Ocracoke, Pamlico Sound | 3:35 am (1.1 ft) · 3:52 pm (1.0 ft) | 10:27 am (0.4 ft) · 10:48 pm (0.3 ft) |
NOAA predictions in feet above mean lower low water, for Wednesday, November 4. 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 | 3.0 ft | 7 sec | 66°F | — |
| Nags Head, about 12 miles offshore | 3.6 ft | 7 sec | 67°F | — |
| Oregon Inlet, about 11 miles offshore | 4.3 ft | 8 sec | 67°F | — |
| Diamond Shoals, about 18 miles off Cape Hatteras | — | — | 80°F | SE 16 mph, gusting 18 |
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 6:28 am, sunset 5:04 pm — 10 hours and 36 minutes of daylight, timed for Nags Head. There is usable light from about 6:01 am until about 5:30 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 moon is waning crescent and 21% lit, rising at 1:46 am and setting at 2:31 pm. The whole year, month by month.
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.