How Does Weather Affect Lighthouses?

How does weather affect lighthouses? I was lucky enough to get a tour of the Oak Island Lighthouse at Caswell Beach, NC Sunday morning to find out. You can see all photos that I took here; below is a video shot from the Observation Deck at the top:

Volunteer tour guides Susan DiCerto and Bob Ahlers from the Friends of the Oak Island Lighthouse (FOIL) took me (and my mom!) up the 131 stairs to the observation deck. Here Susan pauses before we go up, to show one of the 1000-watt quartz lamps that power the lights at the top. The U.S. Coast Guard is responsible for maintaining the lights.

Unlike most lighthouses that have spiral staircases, this structure has 8 sets of "ship stairs", steep ladder-like stairs with thin landings in-between. Here's the view from the top looking down:

The climb was not an easy one and not for the faint of heart (or for those with a fear of heights as I was reminded by my legs turning into jackhammers about halfway up). But the view from the top was incredible - you could see for 50 miles in all directions from one end of Oak Island to the other, Bald Head Island, and you could even spy the Wilmington Nuclear Power Plant and Fort Fisher Aquarium in the distance. Here's one view of western Caswell Beach with Yaupon and Long Beach (where I am staying this week) in the distance:

Weather conditions that affect the tours include the following:

- Lightning & Rain: There was none of that this morning but either will cancel tours because the observation tower is unprotected from above. - High Winds: The winds were high enough to keep me from venturing to the southeast side of the tower (my own decision) but were far short of what would cancel a tour - I estimated around 30-40 mph, a good 10-20 mph above what they were on the ground below. - High Temperatures & Humidity: The lighthouse is always humid, being located next to the ocean; temperatures can be over 110 inside during the late afternoon, which is too hot for tours.

The structure was built 4 years after Hurricane Hazel, the last major hurricane to cause significant damage to Oak Island. It has survived all hurricanes since then (including Fran in 1996 and Floyd in 1999 which hit Cape Fear, just to the northeast) with no damage except the door was lost during an unnamed storm in 2008.

The Oak Island lighthouse was built in 1958 and cost $110,000. At that time, it was the second brightest lighthouse in the world! The lighthouse is 153 feet tall with an inside diameter of just over 16 feet and 8-inch-thick concrete walls. The Town of Caswell Beach bought the lighthouse in 2004 and tours began in 2007.

You can visit the Oak Island Lighthouse Website or view a video at UNC for more information about the lighthouse. Here's a Google Satellite map of the location:

Report a Typo