Showing posts with label duxbury beach. Show all posts
Showing posts with label duxbury beach. Show all posts
Friday, January 20, 2017
Nor'easter Comin'
Hey there! We wanted to give you the early heads-up, as a powerful Nor'easter is targeting us for Monday and Tuesday.
AS FOR NOW, it looks like a rain event in SE Massachusetts. However, long-range forecasts have a way of changing. Our last blizzard started off as a forecast of "six inches of snow over two days" before evolving into the snow machine which eventually visited us.
This storm looks notable for three reasons:
RAIN.... We're looking at 1-3 inches of rain. .10" of rain is a good soaking, while 3" gets up near Tropical Storm territory. No one has said snow for our area, and I want to stress that before stating that- depending on how fluffy it is- 3" of rain would equate to a couple of feet of snow.
COASTAL FLOODING... Winds along the coast will approach 50 mph, more than enough to push an angry sea towards your beach house. One thing that you have going for you? Low astronomical tides. Duxbury Beach, where we hope to embed ourselves for the storm, has a piddling 9 foot tide lined up for Tuesday morning, as opposed to the 11.4 flood tide that they got during the new moon on the 12th. Tuesday morning looks to be the height of the storm, for now anyways.
LENGTH... This looks like one of those 3 tide storms, which is why relatively weak nor'easters often inflict damage similar to a more powerful tropical systems. The ocean always wins, and it generally wins by attrition. "Attrition" is one of those flighty terms, which can mean anything that a journalist needs it to, but the basic idea is that a series of strong tides will wear down a beach through erosion. I'm not 100% sure exactly how long this storm will drop NE winds on the coast, so some of those storm tides may have winds that don't help the waves directly towards the beach.
This is more of a Heads Up than a detailed forecast. We'll be back with an update as the storm gets closer.
Labels:
cape cod,
coastal flooding,
duxbury beach,
Massachusetts,
nor'easter,
rain,
south shore
Location: Buzzards Bay, MA, USA
Duxbury, MA, USA
Saturday, January 7, 2017
Blizzard Warning For South Shore, Cape Cod And The Islands
We apologize for being all over your Facebook feed, but we did promise to be back with an update if things changed... and, by God, change hath come. Someone at the NWS dropped the B Word.
The National Weather Service has issued a Blizzard Warning for Cape Cod, East Coastal Plymouth County (roughly anyone with a shoreline from Quincy to Plymouth) and both Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.
The South Coast, which will not get the ocean-effect/enhanced snow from the NE winds, only gets a Winter Storm Warning.
This storm isn't messing around. It also seems to gain 4 inches in the forecasts every time I take a pause from my Journalism to get high, stalk ex-girlfriends and/or peruse internet pornography. I could use a large Funky Fanabla from Marylou's right now, seeing as I'm at the tail end of a Werewolf Shift, but I'm afraid that we'll be due for 3 feet of snow by the time I get back... if I get back.
We're looking at 18-24" in a stretch running from Chatham west to Onset, then north (about 10-15 miles in from the coast) up to Duxbury Beach. You get 12-18" from Duxbury to Boston, and running south (and to the west of the coast) down to the Rhode Island border. The whole South Coast is in the 12-18" window, as is the entire interior of Plymouth County.
This is also falling on a good 5" or so left over from yesterday's entertainment with Storm #1 for much of SE Massachusetts.
This is a dangerous storm. Thank the gods that it isn't hitting during a weekday commute. Wish that this was happening when the Patriots host some sunny-weather team like Miami or Houston in the AFC playoffs. While we wouldn't anticipate you being snowbound for a week, it may not hurt to buy necessary things like beer and tobacco in bulk.
We aren't anticipating a driving ban, but you never know. Only fools and emergency personnel will be on the roads Saturday. You could get a thousand kinds of messed up if you had a car accident in this weather, and only about half of those will be injuries sustained in the accident.
Frozen in place like Jack Torrance? Could happen. Hit by a plow, left in the street, then hit by another plow? Signs say Possible. You think you're walking down Shore Road somewhere, but you instead are walking off a pier into the stormy Atlantic, where a late-staying Great White Shark devours you? OK, that's not too likely, but if it was going to happen, today would be a prime candidate.
You want to read this article quickly, because blizzards have a funny way of knocking out power to the area. It will take Eversource a long time to get you back on if that happens. Today is a day to settle whatever grudges you may have with the neighbor who has the fireplace and the huge wood pile.
We're pretty much done with forecasting, and our next articles will involve me heading out (on foot, I don't trust my beater car in this weather) to get pictures. We'll publish them as long as we are able to. Feel free to hit up our Facebook Page with any pictures that you wouldn't mind seeing up on these pages.
Hunker down and stay safe, folks. As Fred G. Sanford once said, "This is the big one, Elizabeth."
Labels:
blizzard,
bourne,
cape cod,
duxbury,
duxbury beach,
Marthas Vineyard,
nantucket,
nws,
plymouth,
snow,
snowstorm,
south shore,
upper cape
Location: Buzzards Bay, MA, USA
Bourne, MA, USA
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
Duxbury Beach, November King Tide
Why I hire photographers.... here's me shooting the Supermoon. |
I'm not joking when I say that I'd trade my Bourne cottage for this boathouse like thisquick. |
It's unusual for the tide to get this close to the road in Duxbury. That's why they put the road there. |
Labels:
coastal flooding,
duxbury,
duxbury beach,
flood tide,
full moon,
king tide,
supermoon
Location: Buzzards Bay, MA, USA
Duxbury, MA, USA
Monday, November 14, 2016
Supermoon King Tide Brings Coastal Flooding Concerns
by Tristan Umeda, owner of Family Pet & Supply. |
We are witnessing a unique lunar event, as the moon is getting as close to us as it has been since the 1940s. You no doubt saw her in the sky last night, and perhaps will see it tonight. They call it a Perigree Moon, and it is the opposite of an Apogee (furthest distance) Moon.
The original inhabitants of the area called it a Beaver Moon, and the weather man calls it a Supermoon. We're in a run of them, having had one in October, and awaiting the one in December. This, however, is what Fred G. Sanford would call "the Big One."
The moon exerts influence on many things. Aboriginals, as we saw, use the moons to know when to check the beaver traps for fur. Werewolves and Witches favor the full moon. Smugglers hate the full moon, with the Outer Cape term "mooncusser" stemming from this professional dislike.
Coastal Residents also are wary of Supermoons. Supermoons produce King Tides, also known locally as Flood Tides. Flood Tides are the kind of tides where the road or the basement flood without the usual nor'easter storm catalyst.
Well, at least we won't have a storm to worry about, right? Wait... what?
A storm will move up the East Coast at us Tuesday, and this will get that Supermoon/King Tide amped up even more. This won't be a crusher of a storm, with winds more along the 15-30 MPH range than the 35-74 MPH range. Those winds will be sufficient to work up some surf, and the wves will arrive at the worst possible astrological time or astronomical time or whichever one doesn't mean your horoscope.
This isn't a storm that will tear your house down and beat you with it, but it may flood the road or give you a brand new indoor basement pool.
Brant Rock is looking at a 12 foot high tide at 11:13 AM Tuesday. zthe Sandwich end of the Cape Cod Canal gets an 11.3 foot high tide. Scituate gets an 11.8 foot high tide. Barnstable Harbor gets a 12.5 foot tide. Plymouth Harbor gets a 12.8 foot tide. Duxbury Harbor gets a 13 foot tide. Check your high tide here.
We'll be at Duxbury Beach tomorrow to see what's what. We were at Plymouth for high tide today, as you see below. We'll be back with an update tomorrow.
I stole Tristan's pic because this is what my skillz do to a Supermoon, below:
Labels:
beaver moon,
coastal flooding,
duxbury beach,
flood tide,
king tide,
nor'easter,
supermoon
Location: Buzzards Bay, MA, USA
Duxbury Beach, Duxbury, MA 02332, USA
Friday, October 21, 2016
King Tide At Duxbury Beach
Wave good-bye to the King Tide. |
Labels:
cape cod bay,
coastal flooding,
duxbury,
duxbury beach,
king tide,
Massachusetts,
south shore
Location: Buzzards Bay, MA, USA
Duxbury, MA, USA
Sunday, October 2, 2016
South Shore Saturday Storm Surf Shots
We had a steady East wind yesterday, so we took to the road to see how local beaches were looking. This decision was greatly influenced by me having nothing to do. |
The wind wasn't too bad, and the surf is nothing worthy of a George Clooney movie. Like I said, I had some free time. |
What happens if you assume a bad Cuban accent and yell "Hey, Pelican!!" at a heron over and over.... at least that's what happens on Duxbury 's marshes. |
Even small waves erode the heck out of those sand cliffs. That's why they are willing to risk the goofing that comes with installing a Groyne. |
Cape Cod Canal... this is a jetty, not a groyne. |
Sagamore gets maximum barrier beach protection from Cape Cod. |
Sandwich looked pretty calm from where I was standing. Time to wrap it up. |
Labels:
brant rock,
Cape Cod Canal,
cedarville,
duxbury,
duxbury beach,
marshfield,
plymouth,
sagamore beach,
sandwich,
scituate,
scusset beach
Location: Buzzards Bay, MA, USA
Ocean Rd N, Duxbury, MA 02332, USA
Thursday, September 22, 2016
Dealing With The Ocean On Duxbury Beach
Living on the coast is pretty much the peak human condition. You can walk around barefoot. The beach is within hollering distance. You have a zillion trillion gallon outdoor pool. If you can convince a girl to visit you, she's a good bet to show up wearing a bikini... something that I took for granted growing up on a beach, and something that I was slow to realize didn't happen everywhere when I went to school in Worcester.
Yup, life on the beach is pretty nice. There are costs, however. That gorgeous ocean can become stormy, and stormy seas can push ashore and inflict catastrophic damage on the houses there. While giant waves can smash houses to splinters, even little waves eat away bites of the shoreline in an endless war of attrition.
You can't beat the inexorable Mother Nature, but you can hold her off for a little while. In fact, if you either A) don't care if the house falls into the sea on the great-grandchildren's watch, long after you've gone to your reward, or B) have faith that the science people will solve the problem in the future, you really have to keep the sea at bay for only 20-75 years or so. After that... SEP.
We're going to tour a few beaches before the weather gets too bad and going to the beach becomes something akin to work. As we go to these beaches, we'll have a look at methods people use to fight Poseidon.
There is no consensus on protecting beaches. You can see different methods on different beaches, something you'll notice as you read the articles we write about different beaches. You can also see different methods on the same beach, something you'll notice today as we start our series off in Duxbury.
Duxbury Beach has a mix of inhabited, uninhabited and semi-inhabited coastline.
You can see several methods of erosion control at work here. We have a dune, some snow fencing, some rocks, some beach grass, some scrub pine... we could use some beach plum bushes, but this will do.
Shoot, the whole of Duxbury Beach itself is an erosion control machine, as it serves as a barrier beach for Duxbury Proper across the bay.
The house that you can sort of see in the picture above is the last residence on Duxbury Beach. South of that, it's all sand dunes and snow fencing until you get to High Pines.
Beaches tend to get onshore winds, and those winds blow sand across the beach. Any sort of obstruction, be it a plant or a flower or a stone, slows down the wind and allows the sand and grass to accumulate. As the sea grass spreads, the sand is nourished, and other plants begin to appear. These plants block more and more sand. Over time, a dune forms.
If the ocean doesn't interfere, the dune grows and grows. However, that's a big If.
The snow fencing probably performs some erosion control purpose, but the main one I can think of is that it keeps people from walking on the fragile beach grass.
If you need to know how well it works, here's a picture of how the dunes looked when the Trans-Atlantic cable came ashore a little bit after the Civil War ended.... which is why everyone looks like General Sickles.
Duxbury-savvy folks will recognize that this is the area where Ocean Road North and Cable Hill meet. Prior to the cable coming ashore, this area was known as Rouse's Hummock.... after some guy named Rouse.
Most of the present beach south of the Blakeman's pavillion/bath house works along this model, but the dune in this picture is more impressive than anything seen on the beach today.
The dunes are lower because Duxbury Beach suffers from vicious nor'easters. Nor'easters seem to be elementally offended by dunes, because they wash over them regularly.
If that picture of the cable guys doesn't give you an idea how close to the water the dune is, worry you not! My house on Duxbury Beach was right about where the dude in the dark suit is standing off by himself on the top of the dune.
Here's a view from where he was standing 150 years later. There's a house there now, and a seawall in front of it, but those waves have been hitting the area like that once a year or so ever since time began.
There isn't much beach behind the dunes. Duxbury Beach is barely 100 meters wide at her fat points. The picture below is taken after a storm, and it is aimed at what is by far the fattest part of the beach. It turns to marsh just after the houses and trees.
Here is a picture out the back door (Duxbury Beach residents almost universally refer to the door facing the ocean as the front door, and the street-side door as the back door), showing how much slack the marsh is giving you. Much of Duxbury Beach becomes a series of small islands if the storm gets bad enough.
Post-storm, too...
Notice the shark fin in the water to the left of the telephone pole and above the hay bales? Ah, just kidding, that's not a shark.
That flood will take some time to go away, as the water table is maxed out and it's the lowest point in the neighborhood. The marsh will drain itself as the tide goes out, but the meadow is on her own.
They did lay some pipe under the road after this 2007 storm, and all but the final inches of water will flow back into the marsh through them.
Here are said pipes:
There are corresponding pipe holes on the other side of Gurnet Road. The pipes take care of the meadow and the marsh water. The waves are a whole other problem.
I went with the picture below because it was the best one I have that illustrates both the height of the seawall and the erosion of the sand.
The sand depth at the foot of the seawall varies greatly, and can be augmented by seaweed and rocks. It can make a great difference in wave damage.
The seawall/sand ratio is important, as the sand is what the seawall is based in. If there isn't enough sand supporting the wall, the wall can topple forward into the sea.
The seawall blocks waves for a gang o' houses that pay a pile o' taxes into the town coffers. Many are summer residences which pump no revenue-consuming brats into the town's school systems. Hence, the armored seawall.
Here's another blurry shot, showing how the Duxbury/Marshfield line has to use boulders to help shore up the wall. OK, "shore up" is probably the wrong term here.
I'd have gone closer to the boulders to try to get a shot that showed them better, but I wasn't trying to get wet.
The seawall is the central defense for the residential area of Duxbury Beach.
It's about 15 feet tall, with maybe half of it buried in sand. It's about two feet thick. It can withstand powerful surf without breaking, although they do break now and then.
It runs in two big lines, one extending from Green Harbor to the Duxbury line, and one from 100 yards past the other one down to the end of Ocean Road South.
The gap in the middle isn't a town vs town thing, as I thought it was until I talked to some old-timers. Now, I know that the gap in between the walls exists because the homeowners there, secure on a small bluff, declined to pay the $500 fee for the wall.
Their houses are still standing, so they currently are having the last laugh. Others are doing for self:
If you go there just after a storm, you get the virgin snowfall-looking sand cover.
It costs a pretty penny to put up your own seawall.
Q) Reason?
A) It's worth it.
This sort of DIY seawall, while very fine-looking, makes up about 1% of Duxbury's seawall shield.
Seawalls can only do so much. A powerful storm surge can make the ocean level with the seawall, and then the waves are rolling straight into the houses.
Some houses still have cellars, but they are a dying breed. You need sump pumps to get the ocean water out of them (I had a beach cellar, and the water came in through the windows, through the floor, and through the walls in the Blizzard of '78 and the 1991 Halloween Gale), and I neither have any pictures of sump pumps nor any desire to look for a Sump Pump video. You'll just have to take my word for it.
Any modern housing constructed on the shores need to be on pilings. This lets the water rush under the house rather than through it, which provides some comfort for the house and saves the lives of the homeowners.
This is a pretty good strategy, as I was trapped in my house on Duxbury Beach for the Perfect Storm in 1991, and I saw houses get torn apart by the surf. I also saw houses get lifted up by the surf and washed back into the road.
Stilt housing came into vogue shortly after that, and none of them have been knocked over yet. They have worked their way into the front line of housing along the coast.
There is some debate, mostly among people who were living on the beach for the peak storm activity of the Halloween Gale and the Blizzard of '78, as to whether the stilt housing will hold up against a 100 Year Storm.
Much like the Blizzard of '78 finished off the dune houses on Duxbury Beach, the next hurricane-force storm might finish off traditional-foundation style housing. Again, only time will tell.
Breakaway stairs are also useful.
They are made light enough to either
A) pull them up onto the wall by hand,
or
B) drag them back to your house with a Jeep if you got lazy or sloppy and forgot to do option A.
There is an option C, but that involves building the stairs out of mortar and cast iron. You don't have to pull these stairs up if a storm comes.
Pic by Sara Flynn
Be sure to check out our Plymouth version of this article.
Labels:
cape cod bay,
coastal flooding,
duxbury,
duxbury beach,
green harbor,
hurricane,
marshfield,
nor'easter
Location: Buzzards Bay, MA, USA
Ocean Rd N, Duxbury, MA 02332, USA
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