Lots Of Sand Added To The Beach

Cool temperatures can give you an excuse not to go outside. I try not to let that happen especially when something nice is happening. Last year one of my favorite spots, the Point at Emerald Isle, got a little more isolated when the shifting sands of the beach forced the closure of the vehicle and pedestrian access point. This year there is sand as far as the eye can see. The beach is a long walk.

This weekend it was good to hear that the access had been fixed. Last year we were over at the Point in November, and it looked like the houses were well on their way to being artificial reefs. I heard many times that the beaches were repairing themselves, but somehow it was a little hard to believe. I am glad that the experts were right. You can find more pictures linked from my post about the repairs.

From the sound of this week’s weather forecast, we might be on the way to seeing something of a change in all this cold weather. A storm is set to move up the interior of the east coast. Unless the track changes we are going to miss the brunt of the storm which looks like it might deliver some welcome moisture western Virginia and North Carolina.

It is also going to bring rain to some places that got snow this weekend. Yesterday it was snowing at our old farm in Tay Creek, New Brunswick. We called a friend to find out how much snow they had received. I had to laugh when I heard five inches.

When we lived there, we used to joke that the snowplows would not bother unless six inches or more fell. Actually it was not joke since a small amount like that really just filled in the bumps on the road. Most of the winter we drove on snow packed roads which were much smoother than our summer roads which were usually destroyed by the freezing and thawing each spring.

This morning when I woke up just before 7 AM, I checked our min-max thermometer. it showed that the temperature had been 35 degrees Fahrenheit at around midnight. It also showed a minimum temperature this morning of 29 degrees. With the temperature staying that cool for so long last night, the water in Raymond’s Gut behind our home in Bluewater Cove got a skim of ice on it.

My favorites list at the Weather Underground showed Fredericton, New Brunswick at 9 degrees Fahrenheit and low blowing snow this morning. Our farm was almost twenty miles north of Fredericton and considerably higher in elevation. I would guess the temperature there this morning was likely close to zero Fahrenheit which is not that abnormal for the area in December.

However, here on the coast our average high temperature for this time of year is just under sixty degrees. The average low is slightly under forty degrees. Yesterday we were at least fifteen degrees cooler than normal on our high temperature.

There is still a big difference living on the North Carolina coast when compared to the wilderness in Canada. It is just before noon here in Cape Carteret. Our temperature has warmed eighteen degrees to 47 degrees. Fredericton which is on Atlantic time which is just before 1 PM has only managed to warm one degree to 10 degrees in the same space of time.

While 47 degrees at noon is nothing to write home about, it is far better than a lot of places this morning. My grown children in Reston, Virginia are looking at a cool lunch hour of 30 degrees. My old Apple boss up in Boston will be stuck shoveling snow at 19 degrees. My friend in State College, Pa. will only see 22 degrees for lunch. Even my youngest daughter over by Lake Norman, just above Charlotte, will be ten degrees cooler than us at 37 degrees.

Those coastal places and even Fredericton, New Brunswick are going to see rain by the middle of this week. We are actually going to sneak back into the sixties for a couple of days while the storm moves up the coast.

It is small consolation that other places are colder than we are now. The cold, clear air is great for sunsets. I have a collection of my favorite winter sunset photos in a Picasa web album.

The cooler than normal temperatures have also emptied the beaches. It early December of last year when I wrote this post, Fall keeps Winter at Bay. When we walked the beaches last December, we certainly were not alone. There were surfers out riding the waves.

Even before this last spell of cool weather, we had seen enough cold to keep all but a few walkers and surf fishermen off the beaches. I took this YouTube video of the beach up near the Eastern Regional Beach access where we found the parking lot empty one day last week.

I am looking forward to some warmer temperatures this week even if we have to endure a few showers. I would like to get our Christmas decorations put up, but my pain threshold is now 60 degrees instead of 20 degrees like it was when I lived on the farm.

Certainly we can use some of those 60 degree temperatures to keep us warm while we are watching the rescheduled Emerald Isle Christmas parade which has a start time of 4 PM this Saturday.

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