Many people who come into my Flip Flops Donut shop in Emerald Isle ask about the weather, especially when they are on vacation and especially if it is raining at the minute. I usually respond with an old saying about Emerald Isle weather that goes, “If you don’t like the weather, wait fifteen minutes.” That’s because the weather is the conditions in the atmosphere over a short period of time. Indeed, weather is what impacts life and human activities over a short period of time, like a week’s vacation. Most people think of weather in terms of temperature, humidity, precipitation, cloudiness, brightness, visibility, wind, and maybe atmospheric pressure. Although many people conflate weather and climate, they are different. Weather, as I already explained, is the conditions of the atmosphere over a short period of time, while climate is the condition of the atmosphere over long periods of time. Climate can mean the average weather for a particular region over time and that time period can be 30 years or more.
Inasmuch as the weather can change every fifteen minutes here in Emerald Isle, in order to give my customers an accurate description of atmospheric conditions, I usually speak in terms of climate. When vacationers ask about the weather, what they really want to know is how sunny it will be during their stay here in Emerald Isle. I tell them that, on average, there are 215 sunny days per year in Emerald Isle. The US average is 195 sunny days. So, Emerald Isle is probably sunnier than the vacationers’ home town. And, that’s a good thing. Vacationers also want to know what are the chances rain will interfere with their outdoor plans during their stay. Emerald Isle gets some kind of precipitation, on average, 114 days per year. The US average is 106 days. Precipitation is any rain, snow, sleet, or hail that falls to the ground in a measurable amount exceeding 0.1 inch. Emerald Isle gets 58 inches of rain, on average, per year. The US average is 38 inches of rain per year. So, chances are good that vacationers will experience some rain during their stay here in Emerald Isle. But, regardless of when vacationers visit, they are not likely to see snow. Emerald Isle averages about 1 inches of snow per year while the US average is 28 inches of snow per year.
Vacationers who are thinking about the prospect of relocating to Emerald Isle often have more specific weather uh, they really mean climate questions. I tell them that, in Emerald Isle, August is the warmest month with an average high temperature of 86.2°F. And, while that is warm, 86.2°F ranks Emerald Isle as cooler than most places in North Carolina in August. In Emerald Isle, there are 9.4 days annually when the high temperature is over 90°, which is also appreciably cooler than most places in North Carolina. In Emerald Isle, there are 5 especially comfortable months of the year with high temperatures in the range of 70-85°F. These five months of the year are April, May, September, October and November. January registers the coldest nighttime temperatures in Emerald Isle with an average of 34.7°. And, yet, this makes Emerald Isle one of the warmest places in North Carolina. In Emerald Isle, there are 35.1 days annually when the nighttime low temperature falls below freezing, and there are zero days when the nighttime low temperature falls below zero°, making Emerald Isle, again, one of the warmest places in North Carolina.
I tell prospective new residents that the humidity in Emerald Isle can be oppressive, especially during the summer months of June, July and August when the percentage of water vapor in the air exceeds 70%. The prevailing winds from the southwest, however, do moderate that humidity. The annual rainfall of 58 inches coupled with 114 rainy days annually means that Emerald Isle is one of the wettest places in North Carolina. And, although August is the wettest month in Emerald Isle with 7.5 inches of rain, July is actually the rainiest month in Emerald Isle with 13 days of rain. April is the driest month not only in the amount of precipitation (3.1 inches) but also in the number of rainy days (7.5). The wettest season is Autumn which accounts for 32% of the yearly precipitation. An annual snowfall of about one inch in Emerald Isle means that it is one of the least snowy places in North Carolina. December is the snowiest month in Emerald Isle with 0.5 inches of snow. Days with more than an inch of snow on the ground are exceedingly rare and those days are almost always in late December and early January. Indeed, I can remember only three significant snow falls in Emerald Isle and all three were within the two weeks around New Year’s day.
I am recording this video during what we locals call ‘Summer.’ Summer for us begins when the number of vacationers decreases after Labor Day. With fewer vacationers the town and all us locals can get back on ‘island time.’ Humidity is low. The air temperature is dipping back down into the seventies, as is the ocean. We can open windows and enjoy the cool sea breeze. Days remain long, dry and sunny. I can watch the sun rise and set from my dune deck overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The greens of the leafy vegetation are greener and the blues in the sky are bluer. The flounder are catchable and keepable and oyster season is upon us. Lines are shorter outside my donut shop and I am able to stop and speak with my regulars. Heck, lines are shorter or non-existent in front of all my favorite places to hang out. My companions on my walks on the beach are mainly shorebirds, pelicans skimming the ocean and the occasional angler surf casting. I’m bare footin’ in shorts and a t-shirt. And, I can usually wear this basic uniform until Thanksgiving. Come join me! Experience summer the way Emerald Isle locals experience it. Your body and your brain will thank you. The only weather event that can interrupt what we locals call Emerald Isle summer is a hurricane. And, speaking of hurricanes, Hurricane Ian is making its way up the Florida’s west coast as I record this video. If Ian continues on that path, chances are good that Ian will dump 4-5 inches of rain in Emerald Isle by the week’s end. However, if Ian tracks across the Florida peninsula and enters the Atlantic Ocean, we may be in for more serious weather. For further updates on what we locals call ‘summer’ in Emerald Isle, please go to my website, www.EmeraldIsleHomesforSaleNC.com and sign up for my blog. Ready to buy or sell? Call me at 919-308-2292. Explore the video tab for my weekly uploads to my YouTube channel. Subscribe to my YouTube channel and receive free donuts at my Flip Flops Donut shop. Text your email address to 919-308-2292 and subscribe to my newsletter. My book, "Live Where You Vacation" is available on Amazon.com or at Kindle.
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