The combination of a pesky onshore flow and the first named tropical storm of 2021 in the Atlantic will produce a high risk of deadly rip currents along much of the Outer Banks into early next week.
East and northeast winds over the last several days has kept the rip current risk elevated for all the area beaches this week. Swells being generated from Subtropical Storm Ana have also started to arrive along the North Carolina coast.
Those two factors led the National Weather Service to issue a high risk for the beaches from the state line to Cape Hatteras and along Ocracoke Island.
That means everyone needs to stay out of the ocean off Carova, Corolla, Duck, Southern Shores, Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, Nags Head, Bodie Island, Pea Island, Rodanthe, Waves, Salvo, Avon, and Buxton.
A moderate risk of rip currents is forecast for the south-facing beaches of Frisco and Hatteras village, where only experienced surf swimmers should enter the ocean today.
For the latest rip current forecast and other important beach safety information, visit LoveTheBeachRespectTheOcean.com.
Satellite images indicate that the low pressure system that is located a couple of hundred miles northeast of Bermuda has become better organized overnight.
The low now has a well-defined center of circulation, some central deep convection, and thunderstorms that are organized in curved bands to the north and northeast of the center.
The system is considered a subtropical cyclone rather than a tropical cyclone since it is still entangled with an upper-level low as evident in water vapor satellite images, but it does have some tropical characteristics as well.
This is the seventh straight year a named tropical or subtropical system has formed in the Atlantic or Gulf of Mexico ahead of the official start of the hurricane season on June 1.
Federal forecasters on Thursday released their prediction for the 2021 season, calling for an above-average year of activity.
Ana will eventually be picked up by another weather system and begin moving farther out to sea by Monday.
