High Winds and `Blow Out` Tide in North Carolina
UPDATE: Blog reader Dan says on the previous blog entry that his weather station just gusted to 74 mph near Boone, NC with 14 inches of snow.
GET A LIST OF BLIZZARD SNOW TOTALS
A lot of downed trees and powerlines have occurred today from high winds in North Carolina. The "pressure gradient" between the Nor'easter (blue/low on the map below) and high pressure (red) to the southwest is causing the high winds. Here's a picture of wind arrows & pressure from this afternoon via AccuWeather.com RadarPlus:
Grandfather Mountain, NC just gusted to 95 mph at 5 PM before it went silent (nearby Mount Mitchell's wind sensor seems to be broken). Here's a graph of the storm damage points and wind reports as received by the NWS:
The northwesterly flow is so strong on the North Carolina coast that it's causing a "reverse storm surge" with water levels dropping 2-3 feet in rivers and at beaches. At Wrightsville Beach, NC, indeed the tide appeared to be running about 2 feet below normal though at Oregon Inlet Marina, it was over 2 feet up, because the water was being pushed into the west side of the Outer Banks. 3-3.5 foot increases in water levels were reported at Frisco and Hatteras Village.
My friend Tim who works for the NWS @ ILM said on Facebook "Offshore winds gusting over 40 mph are creating a 'blow out' tide. Some of the shallower inlets (Carolina Beach for example) can become non-navigable for a few hours around low tide." Well that would have been pretty cool to see. Here is a map of those and similar reports issued to the NWS:
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