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Dangerous Rip Currents Continue


Contact:
Katie Mosher, 919/515-9069, katie_mosher@ncsu.edu

Posted Friday, August 28, 2009

With Tropical Storm Danny still looming on the Atlantic Coast, North Carolina meteorologists are predicting the high risk of rip currents through this weekend. Although many of this storm’s effects remain offshore, Danny continues to push up waves as high as 7 feet on some parts of the coast.

According to Steve Pfaff, the National Weather Service (NWS) warning coordination meteorologist in Wilmington, there is a high risk of rip currents for the first part of the weekend, but the threat may lessen on Sunday for North Carolina’s southern coast and nearby South Carolina.

Farther to the north, Jeremy Schulz, an NWS meteorologist in Morehead City, says from the central coast through the Outer Banks and up into the Mid-Atlantic, the threat may extend through the weekend.

“There is a high seas forecast for the whole costal area,” Shultz explains. “Longer period swells push a lot of water up onto the beach, which can get caught on the sand bar and form rip currents as it pushes its way back out to sea.”

Spencer Rogers, the North Carolina Sea Grant coastal construction and erosion specialist, says that rip currents are a common beach feature and only become dangerous under specially tuned conditions. With the sandbars built up from the effects of Hurricane Bill and the long-period waves pushed up by Danny, there is a greater risk for unsafe rip currents.

“Check with local lifeguards,” Rogers recommends. “Also the National Weather Service is putting out up-to-date weather and rip current reports on their website.”

For up-to-date rip current forecasts from the National Weather Service, go online:

• Wilmington (Pender, New Hanover and Brunswick counties) — www.erh.noaa.gov/ilm/beach/rip_risk.shtml
• Newport/Morehead City (Currituck Beach Light to Surf City, Dare, Hyde, Carteret and Onslow counties) — www.erh.noaa.gov/mhx/RipHazard.html
• Wakefield (Northern Outer Banks) — www.erh.noaa.gov/er/akq/marine/rip.php

For more information on rip current safety, visit www.ripcurrents.noaa.gov.

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NOTE TO REPORTERS AND EDITORS: Please note that dangerous rip currents are not limited to tidal cycles. Thus, please use the correct terminology. They are sometimes mistakenly called riptides or undertows, but those terms are not used by NOAA in educational materials that are available at www.ripcurrents.noaa.gov. Thank you for your assistance in this matter.

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