Marine Weather Net

Surf City to Cape Fear, NC out 20 NM Marine Forecast


TONIGHT

S
WINDS
5 - 10
KNOTS

THU

SE
WINDS
5 - 10
KNOTS

THU NIGHT

SE
WINDS
5 - 10
KNOTS

FRI

SE
WINDS
5 - 10
KNOTS

The Marine Weather Forecast In Detail:
AMZ250 Forecast Issued: 650 PM EDT Wed Apr 01 2026

Tonight...S Winds 5 To 10 Kt. Seas 3 Ft. Wave Detail: Se 3 Ft At 7 Seconds And E 1 Ft At 11 Seconds.
Thu...Se Winds 5 To 10 Kt. Seas 3 Ft. Wave Detail: Se 3 Ft At 7 Seconds And Se 3 Ft At 10 Seconds.
Thu Night...Se Winds 5 To 10 Kt. Seas 3 To 4 Ft. Wave Detail: Se 3 Ft At 8 Seconds.
Fri...Se Winds 5 To 10 Kt. Seas 3 To 4 Ft. Wave Detail: Se 3 Ft At 7 Seconds.
Fri Night...S Winds 5 To 10 Kt. Seas 3 To 4 Ft. Wave Detail: Se 3 Ft At 7 Seconds.
Sat...S Winds 5 To 10 Kt. Seas 3 Ft. Wave Detail: Se 3 Ft At 7 Seconds.
Sat Night...S Winds 10 To 15 Kt. Gusts Up To 20 Kt After Midnight. Seas 3 To 4 Ft.
Sun...S Winds 10 To 15 Kt, Becoming Sw 15 To 20 Kt In The Afternoon. Seas 4 To 5 Ft. A Chance Of Showers.
Sun Night...Sw Winds 10 To 15 Kt, Becoming Nw 15 To 20 Kt After Midnight. Seas 3 To 5 Ft. Showers.
Mon...Ne Winds 15 To 20 Kt. Seas 3 To 4 Ft. Showers Likely, Mainly In The Morning.
Mon Night...Ne Winds 10 To 15 Kt. Seas 3 To 4 Ft.
SHARE THIS PAGE:           
Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Wilmington NC
751pm EDT Wednesday April 1 2026

.WHAT HAS CHANGED...

.KEY MESSAGES... 1) Summerlike Bermuda high pressure will maintain southeast to south winds and unseasonably warm weather through Sunday with isolated inland showers possible Sat.

2) The next cold front will arrive late Sunday accompanied by a better chance of showers or t-storms. Much cooler air will follow for Monday and Tuesday.

1) Summerlike Bermuda high pressure will maintain southerly winds and unseasonably warm weather through Sunday with isolated inland showers possible.

An upper level ridge will hang tough just off the Southeast coast through Saturday, deflecting the jet stream well to the north across the Great Lakes and New England. At the surface, the upper ridge will support Bermuda high pressure centered hundreds off miles offshore. An extension of the Bermuda high pointing westward across the Carolinas will maintain light southerly winds and unseasonably warm temperatures through the period.

Away from the cool nearshore ocean water, inland high temperatures should reach 80-84 degrees each day through Sunday with nighttime lows in the upper 50s to lower 60s. These temperatures are a good 10 degrees above normal and continues an extended period of above-normal temperatures that began in early March.

Shower chances appear very limited through Saturday near the coast as a warm capping inversion aloft and limited instability due to cool onshore flow will help stabilize the atmosphere. Inland, there is a slightly better (20 percent) chance of pop-up showers beginning Thursday due to cooler mid level temperatures west of the upper ridge and warmer daytime surface temperatures generating small positive and uncapped CAPE. Even in a best case scenario, rainfall amounts should remain light and spotty through Saturday.

2) The next cold front will arrive late Sunday accompanied by a better chance of showers or t-storms. Much cooler air will follow for Monday and Tuesday.

An upper trough will whip through the Great Lakes Sunday and off the Mid Atlantic coast Monday. This will knock the ridge down along the Southeast coast and help push a surface cold front down into the eastern Carolinas Sunday night. As the ridge breaks down and the low and mid level flow both veer southwesterly, a ribbon of deeper Gulf moisture should advect across the Carolinas, increasing precipitable water values to near 1.5 inches and helping support rain chances which have been increased to around 80 percent Sunday afternoon into Sunday night. Predicted timing of this frontal passage has been remarkably stable in the models for the past couple of days now.

Unlike with the frontal timing, there remains a good deal of spread among models with how fast the belt of mid-level winds will be as convection chances peak Sunday afternoon/night. 700 mb wind speeds range from 30 knots on the ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts) to 40-45 knots on the GFS (Global Forecast System) and Canadian. Bulk shear should be strong enough to support multicells, but further details are still needed before confidence on severe weather potential increases.

Much cooler temperatures will build in behind the cold front for Monday through Tuesday with highs only in the 60s and nighttime lows in the 40s.

Marine
Through Thursday...Generally a persistence forecast due to the unmoving Bermuda High. Light SWrly flow expected through the period. With wind speeds capped at 10 knots even all the way out to 41013 wind waves will be less of the spectrum than the easterly swell, which will also be weak, the two totaling up to about a 3 ft dominant wave forecast.

Thursday night through Monday...Summerlike Bermuda high pressure will maintain a light southerly wind at 10 kt or less across the area through Saturday. Afternoon seabreezes could increase this by a few knots nearshore, but marine weather conditions should remain benign for the next several days. A southeasterly swell at 8 seconds period will dominate the sea state through Saturday.

A cold front approaching from the west should reach the beaches Sunday night. In the 12-18 hours ahead of this front, winds will veer southwesterly and increase to 15-20 kt. Chances of showers and maybe even a thunderstorm will increase as well. Once the front has cleared the coastal waters late Sunday night, colder air will build in on northeasterly winds that could exceed 20 kt at times. Small Craft Advisory conditions may develop Monday.

NOAA Wilmington NC Office: Watches - Warnings - Advisories
NC...None. SC...None.

Marine
None.