NC Coast Changing Rapidly Under Impact Of Rising Seas - Good, Detailed Article [View all]

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Signs of rising sea levels can be dramatic on the North Carolina coast. Stronger storms push storm surge up into oceanfront communities like Ocracoke, breaking records as the sea washes through the dunes, through homes and businesses, making the barrier island almost uninhabitable. But the day-to-day signs of sea level rise are much more subtle. High tides increasingly creep into waterfront roads like River Street in Wilmington. Salt water slowly seeps into land, killing trees and ruining farmland.

North Carolina is already seeing the effects of sea-level rise along the coast. This three-part online series from Spectrum News 1 will explore what the state is seeing already, what it can expect to see, and what North Carolina’s coastal communities can do about it.

“Things are different today than they were 10, 15 years ago,” said Reide Corbett, director of East Carolina University’s Coastal Studies Institute on Roanoke Island. "Today, the main driver of sea-level rise is a global phenomenon with warming temperatures, warming ocean, more water making it into the ocean associated with melting glaciers. That’s the big driver today," he said.

North Carolina has 300 miles of ocean shoreline and another 1,200 miles of coastline along bays and inside the barrier islands. “That 300 miles of oceanfront shoreline is critical, that’s where we're seeing that front line, where we’re seeing a lot of changes on the coast. But we’re also seeing changes right at these marshes, these critical wetlands,” Corbett said. In northeast North Carolina, the sea is rising at a rate of about 4.5 millimeters each year. In Southport, on the southern end of the state’s coastline, the rate is about 2 millimeters of sea-level rise per year. But Corbett and other scientists agree that the rate will likely increase in the decades to come.

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https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nc/charlotte/news/2021/05/25/rising-oceans-part-1--sea-level-rise-is-already-reshaping-north-carolina-s-coast