High surf from a distant nor’easter and gusty onshore winds has pushed overwash across N.C. 12 at Mirlo Beach, and the road was closed between Oregon Inlet and Rodanthe Saturday evening.
A low pressure system that crossed the Outer Banks earlier this week stalled off the coast of New England, and coupled with high pressure building over the mid-Atlantic, and northerly winds have brought breaking surf of 6 to 9 feet from Carova to Buxton.
The National Weather Service office at Newport/Morehead City said the best chance for overwash was during Saturday evening’s high tide around 6 p.m.
A coastal flood advisory is in effect until 10 p.m. Saturday, but forecasters said it may be extended into Sunday morning with the next high tide around 6 a.m. The east-facing beaches remain under a high surf advisory until Sunday night.
NCDOT REPORTS OCEAN OVERWASH ON NC12 IN VICINITY OF MIRLO. ROAD IS CLOSED WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT ON SCENE.
— Dare County EM (@DareCountyEM) April 4, 2020
While the main overwash issues have been at S-Turns just north of Rodanthe, where a 60-to-80 foot long dune breech on Wednesday shut down travel into Thursday morning, seawater was again pouring through the Ocean View Drive area of Avon and at the motels in Buxton.
Some overwash was crossing N.C. 12 at the motels in Buxton on Saturday evening. [NCDOT camera]
The weather service said current trends point to winds and waves over the open ocean starting to drop off as the distant nor’easter moves farther out into the North Atlantic over the next 24 hours.
National Weather Service forecast for Nags Head, as of Saturday 6 p.m.:
This story originally appeared on OBXToday.com. Read More local stories here.