Just What Our Sandbars Need

Today it blew 30 to 40 knots and is still blowing very hard with gusts up to 50 knots here on the coast. We're caught between two pressure gradients---a classic setup---a high pressure system bringing in cooler air (low 70's day, mid to high 60's night)from the northwest and a low to the southeast both spinning against one another and firing up the present northeaster. Rain should develop into the recipe tomorrow sometime.

There's a considerable size overhead northeast swell that should have no problem whatsoever re-shuffling and re-shaping our town sandbars. They were in such dire need of re-work as none of the classic local bars have been working lately.

The towns, knowing this was about to happen, scrambled to dump and push sand up into the east ends of the beach access parking areas. Many of these are no more than a strip of blacktop extending perpendicular from the Beach Road to the dune line, usually around 100 yards long, and providing parallel parking along both their edges and a way in and out in the center.

I drove my loaded and then empty cargo van across the sound on the Currituck Orville Wright Bridge today and was radically rocked by this northeaster, the van shuddering and bucking the big gusts all the way back to the island.

Will keep you posted on the quality of our sandbars following this latest wind event. Here's to the ever changing Outer Banks land and marine-scapes.