hurricane question

In 1914 there was only one tropical storm,Tropical storm one, which is the least active hurricane season ever.

Pray that this tropical invest turns into something good.

 

Speaking of hurricanes. Although I have surfed some good hurricane swell in the fall in MD, the actual tropical conditions never made their way up the coast around NC.

So here is my question. Say you get a good hurricane event going, coming up from the southeast. The storm is headed towards North Carolina and will eventually make landfall there.

At what point does the surf change from good, longer period wind swell from the hurricane, into wind chopped victory at Sea?

I guess my question is, how long do the surfers in town stay surfing on the coast before a major evacuation..... Do you get surfable conditions within a few hours of landfall? Or does the power of the hurricane/heavy tropical storm kill the surf about 24 hours in advance?

I know the term "hurricane chasing" is a common term used in the southeast surfing community... Is it generally a pretty safe practice, or are these guys towing the lines of danger by doing this???

Just curious, cause all of our toprical activity out west comes from so far away, we never get the weather conditions along with it... Just the long period swells.

 

Well, if a hurricane is coming towards us, you'll get the longer period stuff first, depends on how fast the storm is moving. Now when the hurricane makes landfall, there is some surf - big surf - but it's so windy and disorganized it's not worth the risk (usually ). Usually right before and after the hurricane hits it's pretty good because you got big windswell, but the hurricane force winds are not quite on it - but that also depends on the direction of the beach - usually offshores are common on their way away from land (ie. Hanna last year) because of their counter-clockwise rotation.

But sometimes you got storms moving in, and if your lucky, the wind will be blowing offshore, and that's usually our best surf - surfing in the windy, rainy, waves... no kooks (iT'S RAINING! AHH!), but you never know when swell may come...

 

....what if the hurricane's name....is hurricane ditka?

 

what does it take (OBX and wilmington area) to get you guys to evacuate? Does it happen usually every year, or only when one of the big nasty ladies comes through?

 

I rode Isabel down in south Hatteras on Sunday morning & afternoon, again on a clean Monday morning and then humping disorganized but very fun 8 footers in Avon in the afternoon - we were evacuated the next morning. Surfed Assateague Island on Friday and OC/Md on Saturday.

 

zach,

it is all going to depend on the particular situation... where exactly the storm is positioned, and where the path is forecasted, wind strength, rain amounts, speed of the storm. There are too many variables to take into account to give a general answer to your questions. It will vary on every storm.

In general, if you have tropical storm+ force winds, you are not going to be surfing... Sometimes, if the storm rides up the coast, you can catch the back side of the storm as it moves away, and offshore winds move in - just like our regular frontal system storms.

if the town is evacuating, then evacuate.

 

Ok, I guess a more specific example of what my question is.... Last fall (if I remember correctly) there was a full-on hurricane. It was coming up from the southeast and it was aimed direclty at northern South Carolina, and Central North Carolina.... (mid-september maybe)

The reason I watched this so closely, is that my fiance has family in Hilton Head island, SC. I watched the storm and about 1 days before it made land fall, it shifted up north a little and completely missed hilton head. They only got 30MPH wind and some rain...

My question is, in a situation like that last year, where it was a pretty substantial hurricane, and it did make land fall around wilmington if I remember correctly...

Did everyone stay in town for that? Were you evacuated?

I guess my general question was this... Does One have to Leave town (usually) if evacuated, right during the best time for the surf? Or is is usually, by the time that the storm is close enough to shore to evacuate, the surf is already blown to **** because the storm is right there...

 

That might have been Hurricane Hanna - which was actually a tropical storm when it made landfall.

From my experience of living in Wilmington all my life, we've never had to evacuate town, but I'm sure that Wrightsville Beach residents had to evacuate farther inland.

 

interesting. I have been looking at real estate down in carolina beach area. That geogrpahy is the closest set-up to ocean beach, where I live now... So with all of that being said, I am aware that CB is only about 10 blocks wide and is surrounded by water, so my assumption is that CB/Kure beach get evacs quite frequently during cane season.... So, teh Cape Fear river etc, doesn't really have any flooding effects on the central downtown areas of wilmington?

 

As I was saying before, when the surf is good the hurricane conditions are not bad... When hurricane conditions are bad, you wont be missing any good surf. When you do have a coastal landfall, if you are on the south side of the storm, you can get offshore winds, which are not as dangerous since it doesn't bring the storm surge. But, generally, you'll wait until the storm moves away... Surfing in 70mph offshore winds is no good. 30mph offshore winds is another story.

 

Tropical storms are highly unpredictable. Conditions to consider: swell, wind, rain, tidal surge, flooding, local topography, infrastructure and more. Depending upon the area, and the building codes, evacuations may be order hours or days in advance of the predicted landfall. It is not unusual to evacuate the Outer Banks days in advance because there are limited exit routes and the infrastructure is not extensive. If you want to do your due diligence, I suggest you check the population densities, topography, road infrastructure and the emergency management plans for the communities you are considering.

In a nutshell, SC and NC are vulnerable, MD and DE less so. Ditto for VA.