Milton could cause beach erosion along the North Carolina coast

Compared to Florida, North Carolina’s coast will see very minor impacts from Hurricane Milton. However, we’ll have to watch for possible erosion at our beaches through the end of the week.

Milton is forecast to make landfall as a catastrophic hurricane Wednesday night near or a bit south of the Tampa Bay area.

That will bring a life-threatening storm surge to sections of Florida’s Gulf Coast. Destructive winds and flooding rains will spread across a large part of the Florida peninsula through Thursday morning.

Later in the day Thursday, a weaker Milton will move into the Atlantic. For North Carolina, it will stay safely to our south.

The only impacts here as it heads out to sea will be rough surf, minor coastal flooding and that possible beach erosion.

Many of our beaches have already had a danger of rip currents through this week because of storms that have been way out in the Atlantic.

That danger will continue into the start of the weekend.

Rip currents are powerful channels of water that can pull even experienced swimmers away from shore.

Wind gusts Thursday along the immediate coast will not be terribly strong but could reach up to 30 mph. A steady northeasterly wind through Friday morning could cause issues for the Outer Banks including possible overwash of sections of Highway 12.