Hatteras Light House Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, let's get into it. I'm lookin' at what we've got on the table for the next couple of weeks, and honestly, I gotta be straight with you. It's a tough stretch. We're talkin' about a long, lean run with hardly a wave worth paddlin' for. The first real sniff of anything rideable doesn't show up until Monday, July 20th, and even then it's a struggle. Before that, it's a total wasteland.

Alright, so the first bit of hope comes on Monday, July 20th, in the morning down at Hatteras Light House. The swell is a tiny 3 ft from the South, with a short period of 7 seconds. The combined energy is a weak 114, so it's not gonna have much push. The real kicker here is the wind: it's glassy, dead calm. That's a major positive. It's surfable, but the conditions are "very ordinary" – it's not gonna be pretty. This is really the only window that even qualifies as a wave, but for a beginner, it's a chance to get wet without gettin' chewed up. The south swell direction is a bit off from the optimum east, so it won't be lined up perfectly.

After that Monday morning window, it all goes south again. The wind howls, the swell gets messy and junky. There's a bit of a bump mid-week, on Wednesday, July 22nd, with the swell hittin' 6 ft from the South and the energy jumping up to 367 – that's a moderate wave energy. Problem is, the wind is a strong cross-offshore, near gale force up to 31 mph. That much wind on a 6 ft, short-period south swell is gonna be a choppy, blown-out mess. It's really only gonna be interesting for the kite surfers, honestly. The conditions are rated as poor, and the size is getting into that expert-only zone with the wind, so unless you're a masochist, you're better off waitin'.

The rest of the forecast is a long, sad tale of small, weak, and windy surf. The energy drops right back down, and the wind stays onshore or cross-shore for days. There's a brief moment on Monday, July 27th with another glassy morning, but the swell is only 2 ft with a weak 36 energy. It's clean, but there's barely a wave to ride.

So, to sum it up: the only stand-out, if you can even call it that, is that Monday morning, July 20th, at Hatteras Light House with the glassy conditions. It's not a classic, it's not big, but it's the only time the stars align for a clean, paddleable wave. The rest of the 16 days is a write-off. For this area, a blank run like this is more normal than not. Forecasts can change, but right now, I'd be takin' the dog for a walk instead.

Rusty

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