Here are the best beach cams to watch when storms make waves along the NC coast
If you enjoy seeing nature’s power expressed in wave height and anemometer readings, live webcams along the North Carolina coast are a great window into the action. In bad weather, some of the live streams have to buffer a lot, so be patient.
Save a couple of these links. When the hurricanes have passed and seas have calmed, you can feast your eyes on the beach even when you can’t get your feet in the sand.
Here are some favorites.
Webcams on the Outer Banks
▪ Corolla Light Resort’s cam, mounted above the beach crossover at the northern Outer Banks resort, has a good picture and pans smoothly from left to right, providing a sweeping view of the ocean.
▪ Twiddy & Company Vacation Rentals in Duck has a camera that provides a view so inviting the company hopes it will inspire you to call and book house for a week. This is a fixed view with a clear image and true colors, looking straight into the surf, like you would see from your beach chair.
▪ Jennette’s Pier, part of the N.C. Aquarium system, has four live cameras showing the beach and pier from different angles. Good variety, clear pictures.
▪ Durant Station Condominiums has a webcam that looks onto the beach just north of Hatteras Village. Pans smoothly and has a clear picture.
▪ A camera that pans to include the Avon Pier has such clear views you can read the slogans on fishermen’s T-shirts, and the pier structure helps provide perspective on wave height.
Views of the central coast
▪ Bogue Inlet Pier cam is fixed on the popular fishing pier and includes a small section of beach just to the east of the structure. Good views of pier traffic and wave action, plus you sometimes catch comical interactions between sunbathers and their umbrellas and beach shades.
▪ Surf City Pier on Topsail Island has four cameras: three on the pier and one to the north of the pier looking back toward the structure. The last one will be good for watching the big waves roll in because you get a sense of scale as the swells pass.
Southern coast webcams
▪ Tony Silvagni Surf School has a camera showing a section of the strand at Carolina Beach that pans constantly but not nauseatingly and provides a relatively clear picture, though the colors are somewhat washed out.
▪ The camera on the Kure Beach Pier house switches between a view straight down the pier, along the beach to the north and to a spot out in the water where swimmers or surfers can sometimes be seen. Excellent color and clarity.
▪ Ocean Isle Inn’s webcam looking onto Ocean Isle Beach has the dreamy quality of a 1940s postcard, with yucca plants and palm trees in the foreground, the island’s only pier and a long view of the outstretched shoreline. It pivots, looking down the beach in the other direction, but not so fast it makes you seasick. While this is a favorite view, it’s farther from the water than some cameras and may not show as much detail of the wave action.
▪ Frying Pan Light has what may be the only webcam with sound, which vastly improves the cinematic experience. This camera is mounted on top of the circa-1964 light tower that stands in the ocean 34 miles off Southport, which means you don’t see waves crashing on a beach, but during a storm the swells are bigger offshore. You also get the sounds of shrieking gulls and the sloshing of water around the tower legs. Bonus: the tower has the mesmerizing barracuda cam, mounted underwater and accompanied by the natural gurgling of the ocean.
