High water at the dock

The more that the out of doors is part of your life, the more attention that you pay to the weather.   Yet each place you live usually requires paying attention to different things.

Not many in this generation of Americans have the experience of spending most of their lives in one area.  I have some family members who are living within ten miles of where their grandfather and great grandfather were living in 1910.  I have some friends in Canada living in a settlement not far from where their families first put down roots in the late eighteen hundreds.

I never got the chance to walk the banks of the long-gone millpond where my mother grew up with her family.  My grandfather and the millpond were gone before I had a chance to learn about them, but I did get to visit the site of the old dam once.  I still remember the walk through the woods.

I can imagine that if you were living on a millpond, dependent on water flow in a small stream, when and how much it rained would have been very important.  However, the first public weather forecasts did not show up until 1925.  My mother and the family had moved away from the millpond by then.

The early years of my own life showed a strong taste for wanderlust.  I moved to Saint Croix Cove on the shore of the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia, and only marriage stopped me from giving Newfoundland a try.  When we lived in Nova Scotia one of the most important things in the weather during the summer was fog.   A partner and I were trying to farm with a few cattle.  Making hay in the "summer" was how we got feed for the cattle in the winter.

We lived on the north mountain of the Annapolis Valley.  The mountain sloped rapidly down to the Bay of Fundy.  The scenic beauty of the area and the charm of the old farm were undeniable.  Yet the almost inevitable fog during the summer made it really hard to make good quality hay.  As so often has been the case in my life, there was no real local weather forecast.  The only way to figure out the fog was to become a keen observer of the signs which were often followed by fog.

We eventually moved to just north of Fredericton, New Brunswick.  We happened to end up in Tay Creek, which was known locally as a "snow belt."  Our first year there, I measured twenty-three feet of snow.  Once again it did not take long to figure out that the only real local forecasts would have to come from us.  Fredericton, which is the capital of New Brunswick was twenty miles away and much lower in elevation.  I came to learn that Fredericton could easily be eight degrees Fahrenheit warmer than Tay Creek.  In a Maritime climate that makes a huge difference in how much snow you receive.

As we went through our city phase, living in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Columbia, MD and eventually Roanoke, Virginia, it was easier to find forecasts that matched reality until we moved to Roanoke where we ended up living on a high mountain above the city.  Sometimes the weathermen would call for rain, and we clearly got snow.  While living on the mountain was great for getting beautiful sunrises, it made getting an accurate weather forecast challenging.   Once again, we had to learn how to watch the signs and predict our own weather.  Fog also came back into our life.  There were mornings when the fog made the rest of the world invisible.


Now that we are living on the North Carolina coast, I think we might be in the most complex weather area of our lives.  While we have a number of reporting weather stations very close by, it is rare that they can accurately forecast our weather.  When I see a long-range forecast I just chuckle knowing that the odds of it being right are very slim.

Yet here at the coast, the weather is a huge part of our lives.  We have to get ready for events like Hurricane Irene, and often what we are hearing from the weathermen is more focused on other areas than our spot just off the White Oak River.  When Irene visited, I took to issuing my own forecasts to a number of neighbors.  It was helpful to me and them.  Things are a lot different than in the days of the millpond.  Much of the information needed for a forecast is there, you just have to know where to look and how to interpret it.

It is October 11, and for days we have been hearing about a tropical low that forecasters were guessing would dump up to three inches of rain on our area.  Three inches of rain doesn't mean a lot to our area which has seen some extreme precipitation over the years.  However, the forecasters were also calling for high winds and tides.  I knew to watch the morning tide to see if I needed to raise my boat a few inches.  Sure enough, at about 11 AM, I had to raise my boat a little.  However, so far the rain total is only eleven-hundredths of an inch at 1 PM and the sky is significantly lighter than when we got up this morning.  I suspect that my feeling that most of the rain was going to miss us is going to play out accurately.

Snow, heavy rain, and fog might not be problems here, but high water and winds can make us pay close attention to the weather.  The attention we pay is not much different I suspect than how my grandfather watched for rains around the millpond.  I would love to know if he got some great weather suitable for bottling just like we have recently seen.

A perfect beach day is always around the corner

Few people on the east coast would disagree with the statement that "This has been a hot summer."  There are also plenty of folks in the southwest that are still being slowly baked.  The middle of August uncharacteristically has turned out to be a lucky time to be on North Carolina's Southern Outer Banks.  August certainly doesn't have a history of being a time when we have our most pleasant weather.

However, the one thing about living at the beach is that you get to hang around until the weather turns perfect for a beach trip even if it is in the middle of August.

July 2011 was the hottest July that we have seen in our five years of living in the Crystal Coast portion of North Carolina's Southern Outer Banks.  The Crystal Coast is often defined as the area in Carteret County from Emerald Isle to Atlantic Beach sometimes including Beaufort.  For all practical purposes, the area runs from Swansboro in Onslow County to the east to Beaufort in Carteret County.

Usually in our little piece of paradise, July can be a relatively pleasant month.  Sometimes we have have our windows open at night and in the morning through early July.  This year things warmed up quickly, and the heat was almost inescapable except for a few nights in July when we were able to have our windows open.

The heat of the 2011 season has been compounded by a stubborn drought which started in early May and is still clinging to the area.  With the drought came some wildfires which were started by lightning in some large natural preserves.  Three have been three of those this summer, and we have had some days when we needed to escape the smoke.  You know it is dry when the swamps are catching on fire.

Since we live near the beach, we go to the beach a lot especially to escape the heat.  This spring, I walked all the beaches within the town limits of Emerald Isle at least three times.  That is a lot of beach walking. I am approaching 100 miles of beach walking for the season.  It is not unusual for me to go for a noon beach walk over on the beautiful sand at the Point. However, when the heat is on, even I avoid the beaches.

In July 2011 and the early part of August hotter than normal temperature that kept me away from the beach more than I like.  Even our evenings were warm, and the area waters heated up so quickly that there was little relief from the day's heat even at night.  It was still more pleasant at the beach, it just wasn't pleasant enough to lure me out regularly.

So when the middle of August 2011 rolled around and our high temperatures dropped to the upper eighties from the low nineties,  and we had some lows in the sixties, I knew it was time to get back to the beaches.

I boat several times a week during the summer, so I am acutely aware of the winds. I will often take our skiff down to the marshes on the other side of the Intracoastal Waterway at Swansboro.  It is a good way to know what the water temperature is doing and how the winds are blowing.

On August 16, my morning boat ride told me that the White Oak River had cooled to slightly under 80F which was a drop of almost eight degrees in a week.  I also found some steady winds from the north.  In my mind, that along with the day's beautiful blue skies, set up the possibility of nearly perfect beach conditions.

We had some errands to run early in the afternoon which was fine since low tide wasn't until 4 PM.  I enjoy the beach on a falling tide or even right at low tide.  It is the best time for a beach walk.  It didn't take us long to finish our chores, and head across the bridge to the beaches of Emerald Isle.

This time of year when some of the larger beach areas can be crowded, it doesn't take much to convince me to drive east along the beach for a few miles.  Somewhere just before mile marker 12.5 we usually turn right off of Emerald Drive and then left onto Ocean Drive until we get to Third Street Beach.  It is one of our favorites.  It is rarely crowed, and there is a nice picnic table with platform where my wife can relax if she doesn't want to get her feet wet.

I almost always want to get my feet wet, and August 16 was no exception.  While I didn't go on one of my long beach walks, I did stand knee deep in the surf and enjoy what I thought was nearly perfect water with just the right amount of breeze under a wonderful blue sky.  There was just enough heat in the air to make the water pleasant.  August 16 was a perfect beach day, and I am glad that I knew enough to head over to the beaches and grab a taste of it.   This is a YouTube video that I made while standing in the surf.

I am hoping it is just the first of many this season since we are headed slowly but surely towards fall which is often the best time to come to the beach.






 

Fourth July 2011 on the Southern Outer Banks

The beach and boating season is here. It has been a challenge to enjoy the last couple of weeks.  Finally as June departed we got a taste of our blue skies which have been hidden a number of days by smoke from North Carolina's two large coastal wildfires.

We have been prisoners of the fickle winds which control  whether or not we have blue sky and sun or just smoke.  It has been been strange waiting for the smoke to go away so we can get out on the water.  We have had enough bad mornings that I was happy recently when I figured out that we were having a fog event instead of another smoke attack.

Our preparations for the Fourth always include some early grocery shopping.  One of the things you don't do on the Southern Outer Banks if you are a local is go to the grocery store on the Fourth of July weekend for any significant shopping.  You might sneak in for a few items, but a major grocery trip is not a good idea.  If you happen to live actually on the beach at Emerald Isle, it is unlikely you could find a parking place at Food Lion even if you wanted one.

The other option would be to leave the island, but then you would have to come back across the bridge which can take a long time.  Most holiday weekends leaving the island if you are a resident or visiting the island if you are a local main-lander  is not a good idea, but this July 2 was even worse than normal.  Some of the longest traffic backups since 2005 were seen in the area according to some knowledgeable locals whose opinions I respect.

I did have to go out to  place some real estate flyers on Saturday, July 2, so we rode down to Swansboro.  If you have never been to Swansboro, Front Street is a something of a challenge even when there is little or no traffic. The main street is a two way street with parking on both sides of it, but unfortunately there is only room for one lane of traffic.  Locals tend to operate by the rule of the biggest vehicle gets the right of way.  With the holidays, we have a lot of folks who have no idea of the way things work.  They often refuse to yield on Front Street so it doesn't take much for the whole system to fall apart and gridlock to take over Swansboro's main street. We were close to that yesterday for a short while.  It is a good thing Front Street has a high quotient of cuteness with lots of little shops.

Fortunately we lucked into a great parking spot at the far end of Front Street,  I went to deliver the flyers to the tourist office while my wife checked out the crafts fair by the new Pavilion where the Fourth of July concert will take place on Monday, July 4..

Afterwards we had lunch at Church Street Deli.  The sandwiches were delicious but at $8.95 each they were a little pricy for what we got. My wife's Reuben was the best choice.  We should have gone across Hwy 24 and eaten at Trattoria like we usually do.  There a split cheese steak sub is more than enough for the two of us and the meal is five dollars cheaper.   After lunch we headed back towards Cape Carteret with the plan of dropping some clothing off at the local consignment shop.  We never made it to that stop.

Traffic was backed up in both lanes of Highway 24 all the way from the bridge to Walston's Hardware so we took a back way through Marsh Harbour over to old Highway 58 and then VFW Road which brought us back to Highway 58 North and the way home to Bluewater Cove.

Later I had a form to deliver to our real estate office so we headed out again at around 3 PM.  Unfortunately traffic was even worse.  After getting the form to the office and making some copies of a flyer, we took the long way once again and went home for good.

Still it is great to see lots of people here.  I am willingly yielding my home turf for a few days.    I was at the beach July 1 and out on our boat on June 30 so I am happy to wait until July 5 before venturing over to the beach or dropping our boat into the water again.  The local businesses need the traffic to survive the quiet season, but I do wish people wouldn't drive like idiots.

I had a car full of youngsters zig zag around me at close to sixty miles per hour after I pulled out of the real estate office.  The speed limit by the office is thirty-five, and usually anyone driving over forty-five will get a quick ticket. Yesterday my only satisfaction was they got caught in the mess at the intersection and had to wait to pass me yet again another mile down the road.

We get the privilege of living here all year so sharing the beach with tourists for a few days isn't much to ask. Our area is a little off the beaten path.  That is one of the reasons we chose the area.  It has always been my experience that the easier the beach is to reach, the higher percentage of bad tourists that you get.

Fortunately you cannot take an interstate highway directly to us.  We are a location which takes a little work to find, and I think that the people who come here in general come because they love the area.  They often come year after year and mostly treat the area like their home.  Of course there are always exceptions, but I don't think we have as many exceptions as some of the more convenient beaches.  It doesn't hurt to have Emerald Isle's very efficient police department either.

So I welcome those who come for a visit and want the area to stay as nice as it is now for their children's children.  The world needs more people like that, and I am proud that we are the vacation spot for many of them.

I have a webpage with quick links to information about the area. There is a link on the page for a downloadable PDF map for those who would like a visual aid for my narrative.  Or if you are in the area, you can pick one up at the local tourist bureaus.

A May to remember on the Southern Outer Banks

While summer has been elusive to many people in the Northeast and Canada, it has found us along the Crystal Coast of North Carolina's Southern Outer Banks.

Anyone who is worried about not having enough warmth along the beaches in late spring of 2011 should immediately banish those thoughts.

On the last day of May 2011, the temperature along our coast soared into the upper nineties.  Those temperatures are rare any time of the year here, and almost unheard of in May.  With all the warm air,  the water temperature along the beaches of Emerald Isle has been pushed to 80F.

While some places above the Mason-Dixon line have been straining to see the sun, we have seen no significant rain since May 7.  The skies have been blue, and sometimes clouds have been completely absent.  And for the most part, we have had steady breezes to keep us relatively cool in the warmth.

Unfortunately our winds died down somewhat on May 31 which I'm sure will turn out to be the hottest day we have seen in a long time.  If I heard the forecast correctly, the winds are coming back later in the week.

Stunning is perhaps the best way to describe most of our May beach weather.   Even with the weather being fantastic, we have just seen our first crowds this Memorial Day weekend.

One of my many beach hikes took me to Emerald Isle's Point at lunch during the week before Memorial Day.  The beach was almost empty.  With so much great weather, it has been challenging figuring out the best ways to enjoy the area.

All the water at our doorstep tends to push me towards boating and kayaking with some fishing thrown in for good measure, but this spring, I have spent a lot of time hiking the beaches.

In addition to beach and water time, the weekends have been filled with things to do.   If you mix the local festivals with great water access and some fantastic weather, you get the essence of the Crystal Coast.

2011 has been a great spring to be on the coast, and if you are thinking of moving, there is no better time to start checking out potential homes or cottages.

April at the Beach

Lots of folks think the only nice time to be at the beach is after the middle of June.  While it is true that the ocean water is warmer in mid-June, there is a lot to be said for an April beach visit.

One of the nicest things about coming to the beach in April is that there is so much space that you will think that you own the beach.  Most people don't swim in the water anyway, so if you are just looking to relax on the beach,  is April really a good time to visit North Carolina's Crystal Coast.

As it is with much in life, the answer is "It depends."  The only way that you can count on beach weather is to live here and never leave.  Then you will be assured of finding some great weather. You can, however, find some great weather in April along North Carolina Southern Outer Banks which tend to warm up faster than the more famous beaches of Nags Head, Duck, and Manteo.  Still whether or not you beach visit will be a great one does depend on the weather, and that varies from year to year.

April 2011 through April 20 has been a stellar month with mild temperatures and very little rain.  While we have seen our share of wind, it has mostly been wind that could be ignored.  We can have wind here that is very hard to ignore, but so far in April 2011, the wind hasn't kept me off of the beach very much.

So if your April beach trip is somewhat dependent on the short term weather, it means that you might be better off waiting until the last minute to book your trip.  Actually for most of April that will likely work.  Easter weekend which this year is April 23 and 24 might be an exception.  It is late enough in the year to give people some hope of real warmth, so I am guessing that we will have a good crowd especially since we have some eighties in the forecast.  But even if we have a good Easter crowd, it will be nothing like a 4th of July crowd.

On Emerald Isle almost everything stays open all year, so even in early April you can find all the area restaurants and services open.  The only thing missing this year at Easter will be our McDonald's in Cape Carteret. The restaurant is being rebuilt.   There is also a new Dunkin' Donuts being built in Cedar Point, but it won't be done until summer.

An April beach visit often means that you can get a great deal on accommodations even at the last minute, and still have plenty of space on the beach for yourself.  With one or two exceptions, you will likely be able to walk right into most restaurants without a wait.

As of mid-April, the water temperatures are already in the mid-sixties and climbing.  I went surf fishing earlier this week, and standing in the water was not a problem.  I did see some people out in the water, and not all of them were youngster. However,  I figure for the most part that they must be Canadians or New Englanders seeking any hint of ice free water since most locals usually wait until June before they dunk their whole bodies in saltwater.

April weather is certainly nice enough for kayaking on most days as long as the wind hasn't kicked up.  I have already been out a couple of times myself.  So far it has been a little windy for a whole afternoon of fishing from a skiff, but the wind can stop at any time. You can't enjoy those rare moments unless you are here.   I managed to get one short skiff  fishing trip in during March but that has been it so far.  There will be plenty of time for more fishing as the water warms.

So if you want some pure relaxation, fewer crowds, and lots of room on the beach, come visit us in April.  One of the hidden benefits is that in April the weather is so nice that we often sleep with our windows open.  It has been nearly three weeks since our heat pumps have run.

I have been walking the beaches regularly, and I can assure you that they are in fine shape for those beach hikes.

And if you need one more reason, the local strawberries are ripe, and as usual,  they are delicious. Produce is starting to come to the stands, we had new potatoes and local asparagus for dinner on Tuesday night.  There is nothing like fresh produce and some fresh fish with near perfect strawberries for dessert to make you certain that spring is here, and summer is on the horizon.

This is my Emerald Isle Travel Guide to help you plan your trip.  You can find out more about the Southern Outer Banks at my Crystal Coast Life Blog.
Here are some pictures that I took on my most recent hike along the beach.

Learning to take the weather in stride

Most of the US has seen a pretty tough winter with temperatures colder than normal.  Here in Carteret County the rumor is that this was the coldest winter in the last 100 years.  For the most part the rivers did not freeze over, and our one big snow storm of four inches disappeared within hours of arriving without any shoveling.

However, our weather recently has been so nice that it has been easy to forget that we are in spring and that cooler weather is never far away.  Wednesday, March 23, was so nice that a friend and I managed to sneak in an early spring fishing trip.  Earlier in the month, I managed to explore all the new sand over at the Point at Emerald Isle.  A week later, I even managed a much longer walk on the beach.

All of this was accomplished in shorts and temperatures ranging from the upper sixties to the eighties.  It should not surprise anyone that we assumed that spring was here.  Even the plants got into the swing of things.  Our Bradford pear blooms only lasted a week.  The daffodils didn't last but a couple of weeks. Recently we have seen some tulips, wisteria, and even dogwood trees blooming.  I even put my tomato plants in the ground the same day that I went fishing.

The pelicans, great blue herons, and white herons that have been hanging around the water behind our home headed off for bigger waters.  There were a couple of days when the bluebirds were so noisy that I was sure that spring was entrenched here on the Southern Outer Banks.  Even the bait fish in Raymond's Gut which runs out to the White Oak River could hardly stay in the water.  They were swarming around our dock and jumping all over the water as I idled my boat out to the river.  I even wrote a post talking about figuring out the puzzle being near the water in Carteret County.

Mother Nature sent a warning shot across my bow on Thursday night.  I managed to go on my first White Oak River kayaking trip of the 2011 season.  It was late in the day when I left our dock, but the temperatures were in the upper seventies.  By the time I got back only a little over an hour later, the temperature had dropped to the middle fifties, and the water taken on an appearance not nearly so inviting.  The picture at the top of the post was taken about when I figured about that a front had just gone over me and taken away all of my warmth.

Still the next two days weren't so bad.  We managed to get into the upper sixties each day.  Then came Sunday, March 27.   It was a cold day with temperatures in the middle forties when we got out of bed.  They actually drifted downwards during the day to the low forties.  Areas to the north and west of the Crystal Coast haven't even made it into the forties.  Snow has been reported in West Virginia mountains, and the mountains in southwest Virginia and North Carolina are likely to get some snow during the evening of March 27.

It just goes to show you that you cannot count on the weather.  While it appeared spring was with us for good, we now have a slight bump in the road.    We will have to worry about those blooms on the strawberry plants and my tomato plants.    The cold temperatures stretch well into South Carolina and Georgia so we are not alone.  However, that is not much comfort.  I was hoping for another long beach walk this weekend, but it will have to wait.

It appears that we will be back in the fifties and sixties by the end of the March.  I guess we will have to dream a while about the return of those eighties.  That is not a problem.  This time of year I am used to dreaming about summer days.

Oh well it is nice to see our great blue heron buddy back behind the house for a last visit before spring.

Close to the weather and even closer to reality

It is something of a local sport listening to weather reports and guessing how long it will take them to catch up with the reality of the local weather.

Living along the coast in the middle of a string of small towns is a lot different than living in a compact urban area under the microscope of a number of weathermen.  Urban areas like Northern Virgina, Washington, and Baltimore are only a fraction the size of the coastal area that our weathermen deal with when trying to come up with a forecast.

Carteret County would be about half the area of the combined Washington-Baltimore metropolitan area.  The problem is that the weathermen looking after our area cover about fifteen counties of which we are only one.  Our closest weatherman is three counties away and pretty far inland.

On top of that our weather changes radically depending on where you are in relation to the water.  Then there is the little fact that weather systems can form or intensify off our coast.  So how many times have you heard the phrase "a low will form off the North Carolina coast?"  That would be our area.

Friday morning, February 11, we got a second dose of seeing how difficult it is to come with an accurate forecast in an area as complex and large as coastal North Carolina.

When we listed to the forecast on Thursday night at 11 PM, we were told to expect a few morning showers followed by clearing in the afternoon with a high temperature of around 50F.

Friday morning we even heard the same forecast which was strange since I awoke to blue skies.  Unfortunately the blue skies did not last very long.  Before nine AM, we were seeing rain showers which not only did not stop but continued until almost ten PM Friday.  On top of that our temperatures never got out of the upper thirties much less to 50F.

I would class that as a miss almost as big as our last "snow storm" when we were supposed to get maybe an inch, and we ended up with four to seven inches of snow.

Of course I don't blame the weathermen, it is just difficult to try to guess the weather in a large complex area intermingled with so much water.  All it takes is a system moving two or three miles closer to the coast, and our weather is totally different than the weather just a few miles inland.

What happens is that residents stay close to the weather forecasts, but they also have to use some common sense.  It you see a line of storms on the horizon, you pay attention to them even if there are no storms in the forecast.

It is not a bad way to live, much of what we hear and see on the television and Internet could use a little more fact checking just like we give our weather forecasts.