Wrightsville Beach Surf Outlook: September 25 – October 1, 2026

Conditions  Clean  ·  Semi Bumpy  ·  Choppy

Each day’s pill is split — left half is the morning session, right half is the afternoon.

Issued 6:00 AM September 25. Note: Forecast based on early Friday morning (9/25) data. While broad patterns usually hold, forecast shifts occur—verify conditions before heading out.

Friday–Sunday 9/25–9/27 — Easing But Improving ENE Swell

A nor’easter will move slowly off the Mid-Atlantic states through the weekend, moving west closer to the coast by Sunday. The storm is producing good sized ENE trending E swell that will impact the area today before slowly easing through the weekend.

Friday brings plenty of waist to shoulder, occasionally head high surf. Breezy N winds around 14 to 16 mph (higher gusts) will produce semi clean conditions overall, but best at protected spots. Winds should start to ease some by evening, so keep an eye on it.

Expect the surf to slowly fade through the weekend, with thigh to chest high surf on Saturday and knee to waist high on Sunday. Winds and conditions will improve as it goes, with diminishing NW winds on Saturday trending more W on Sunday. Keep an eye on the buoys and cams to see if more swell lingers than forecast, especially Saturday.

The low’s N then NW movement is critical to our forecast. Right now the low sits well offshore to our east-northeast, with a long stretch of open water between it and us. As it drifts N/NW toward New Jersey and Long Island, we ultimately will see our fetch cut off. The trade is that the same storm movement will allow our local winds to turn offshore, so while the swell fades it will clean up further.

It should be noted that the weather looks very pleasant through the weekend, with increasing sunshine and highs in the 70s (lows in the 50s at night).

Monday–Thursday 9/28–10/1 — Fading Leftovers, Small and Clean Midweek

The nor’easter will weaken just south of Long Island on Monday before lifting out to sea through the middle of the week. High pressure will meanwhile rebuild just offshore. This pattern leads to further fading surf, with mostly knee, occasionally thigh high leftovers for Monday and around knee high surf through the middle of the week.

Winds and conditions will likely be best in the mornings early to mid next week. Expect plenty of sunshine with temperatures warming into the low 80s by midweek.

Tropical Update

The tropics are a little more active now, with Tropical Storm Fay over the central Atlantic and Tropical Storm Gonzalo, which formed overnight near the Cabo Verde Islands. Fay is at 29.8N 42.8W with 50 mph winds and is drifting west-southwest. It is forecast to weaken steadily and become a post-tropical remnant low by Sunday morning, dissipating by midweek.

Gonzalo is tracking north rather than west, and is also expected to peak around 50 mph before weakening to a remnant low by Sunday evening. While Fay may send a minor mid period swell over early to mid next week, neither of these looks to be a significant wave maker for us.