Why is it that the city of Wilmington just never messes with the issue and puts it out there like it should? Huh? Thanks, Gareth. Gareth is a pretty smart guy. Understands the issues.
By Gareth McGrath
Staff Writer
gareth.mcgrath@starnewsonline.com
According to the calendar, it's too late in the year for a nor'easter and too early for a tropical storm.
According to the calendar, it's too late in the year for a nor'easter and too early for a tropical storm.
But a weather system with characteristics of both has been battering the North Carolina coast since Sunday.
Dubbed a March storm in May, the low-pressure system spinning offshore has pounded the state's coastal region.
Stephen Keebler, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Wilmington office, said the weather system - cut off from westerly winds that generally blow systems out to sea - was moving in a southwesterly direction parallel to the North Carolina coast.
The storm was projected to keep hitting Southeastern North Carolina with sustained winds up to 30 mph, and stronger gusts, into Thursday.
Offshore, even stronger winds were forecast to continue disrupting mariners' plans. On Monday, the Coast Guard rescued nine people from storm-tossed sailboats off Cape Hatteras."
It's kind of a nor'easter that's kind of stuck out there," Keebler said, noting that the weather system was unusual but not unprecedented.
Local beaches have borne the brunt of the storm, with winds out of the north and white-capped waves chewing away chunks of sand at high tide.
Topsail Beach Mayor Butch Parrish said that by mid-afternoon Monday, the storm had washed away all the sand the town had bulldozed up in the last year to help reinforce its eroded dune line - with several more high tides to go before the system was expected to clear out.
No rain to easefire worries (Kindly note, that heat transfer systems don't have high condensations of water, so there is no rain.)
"We're getting hammered," he said, "and now we're back to where we were a year ago."But the low-pressure system won't bring what the region desperately needs - a heavy rain.
Keebler said some showers could form, but rainfall amounts weren't expected to be significant. "It's certainly not going to be a drought-buster," he said.Rainfall this year at Wilmington International Airport through Sunday was running 40 percent below normal levels.
The combination of blustery weather and a lack of rainfall has emergency officials on edge over wildfires.
Pender County Fire Marshal Charles Newman said several "hot spots" Monday flared up in areas burned last month by a 1,000-acre wildfire near Scotts Hill. But they were well within the fire lines and didn't present a danger to any people or property, he said.
Newman said the flareups just showed how susceptible the county - which like all of Southeastern North Carolina is still under a burn ban - is to fire right now."
Even with the rain we had over the weekend, some areas are still bone-dry," he said. "And these burns are drying up those areas that did see some rain like a hair dryer."
Dangerous surf
With white caps slamming ashore, some brave souls were venturing out onto the beach at Wrightsville Beach.
But Dave Baker, head of the town's Ocean Rescue, said even experienced surfers should think twice about braving the waves."
These are dangerous, heavy surf conditions that people shouldn't really be risking," he said.
The weather service issued a high surf advisory and recommended people stay out of the water until the danger of large breaking waves and the threat of rip currents was over.
Farther up the coast in Topsail Beach, Mayor Parrish said he just hoped some of his town's most threatened oceanfront structures could ride out the blustery weather.
He said a beachfront tour in March showed about 20 percent of Topsail Beach's oceanfront homes met the state's definition for being "imminently threatened," which occurs when the escarpment is within 20 feet of a building's foundation.
Parrish said that considering the erosion that's occurred already, that number is likely to rise."
We've lost about all the repairs we've done," he said.
"We're going to be in trouble."
Gareth McGrath: 343-2384
