Storm systems. At some point this summer and fall it is likely that one or more of these systems will effect your area beaches, just how much largely depending on the strength, direction of the swells, and the duration of the system. Now let me say first that I have only lived on the east coast of Florida for four years and that I have yet to experience the full effects of a major storm system. However, I have experienced the effects of those typical storm systems that seem to come a few times each season. So the following is what I know about the effects of these systems as they pertain to my area beaches.
First, my area beaches are above the cape and they are further away from the gulf stream then those beaches south of the cape. As a result there is a larger expanse of sand bars off my coast then those in the south and my beaches are also typically flatter and wider. I think this holds pretty much true until you get much further south. Just pointing out that not all beaches are laid the same and so it is quite possible that my beaches might see very little erosion while those further south see a great deal. Anyway, here we go.
The three biggest factors that will determine just how much erosion or reshaping a beach will see is angle of the attack, water volume/force, and the duration of the attack. Last year we had a storm system that lasted for a few days and things looked pretty promising until it finally settled down enough to go hunting, then not very promising at all. All it really did to my area beaches was to drag all the upper beach dry sand down onto the lower beach, beyond that it didn't do much at all. Why? Because it attacked the beach from straight on, no crosscutting action to dig into the flat beach and to redistribute the sand, no aggressive reshaping or stripping action at all.
On the other hand, a couple of years ago a fairly weak system attacked the beach for a couple of days and it created all kinds of cuts and low spots all up and down the beach and the hunting was quite good for several days afterwords. Why? Because it attacked the beach at a step angle which created a lot of crosscurrent and stripping and reshaping action. This storm system produced some fantastic hunting and for several days it was difficult to take more then a few steps with encountering another target.
What made the above storm system so great was not only the angle of attack but the water volume, duration, and force, the swells being something like 8 to 10 feet so not only did it do a lot of stripping but it also broke up those offshore bars and carried a lot of items onto the beach. It was the best of both worlds.
On the flip side, however, a few years ago we had a slow moving hurricane stalled way out in the Atlantic and for several days we had 6 to 8 foot swells coming onto the beach, straight in. When this storm finally subsided we had piles of weed and sand everywhere and the hunting absolutely sucked!
So here's my first suggestion, don't get too worked up over these storm systems until you can see what they're actually doing to your beaches.
Down to bedrock. Targets fast and furious at the bottom of those cuts. As fast as you could dig, multiple targets per basket. You'll never return to dry sand hunting again when you've been in conditions like that! haha
