Surf Check: Marconi Beach To Marshfield

A storm forming just offshore churned up some surf towards the tail end of nor'easter season.

We started off in Wellfleet, at Marconi Beach. There were no social distancing problems, no one else was there.

Our work on the Outer Cape today went down about 3 hours before high tide.

This wasn't a terrible storm by any means, but now you know for sure.

Next stop, Nauset Light Beach in Eastham

The wind had been E/NE for some time. We got lucky everywhere we stopped, no rain, only mist. 

The surf was still building when we were on the Outer Cape. We like to be on the South Shore for high tide, as people on the South Shore build closer to the coastline, and we get better house-vs-wave shots.

We'll do the Outer Cape for high tide during a bad storm sometime.

Off to the mainland

Marsh Vegas! 

Duxbury Beach

"I be creepin" through the hood..."

Good surf for a weak storm

We had to leave Duxbury about 45 minutes before high tide.

See you next time!

Last Snow Of The Season, And Late Season Snow Information

Hanson

Late-season snow facts:

- According to WBZ, Boston has had snowfall of 12 inches or more after March 20th once, in 1997. More on that in a sec.  Boston has 6 instances where 6 or more inches of snow fell after March 20th. Worcester has had 12 such events.

- The average date of Boston's last snowfall is March 25th.

- The latest measurable snowfall for Boston was a half inch on May 10th, 1977. The latest we've had non-accumulating snow in Boston was June 10th, 1955.

- This source tells me that New York and Atlanta both have the same day, in different years, for latest snowfall... April 25th.

Brockton

- Most of New England had frost on August 23rd in 1816, and lake ice was seen around the Bay State into August.. This was due to the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia, which gave everyone red, smoky skies and drove worldwide temperatures down. New England had her corn crop fail, and all sorts of food prices skyrocketed. June snow fell in some parts of New England. It is known as The Year Without A Summer. They had one period where it went from 95 degrees to 35 degrees in a half day.

- Three late-season snowstorms stand out in our history. One was that May 10th, 1977 one from The Farmer's Almanac. The record is a bit later in the year for the Berkshires. The other late-season trace snow events of note in our history are the ones I was yapping about up above.

- Our second storm of note was the 1997 April Fool's Day Blizzard. Over 25 inches of snow fell on Boston, and coastal flooding tore apart the shoreline.

Duxbury

- Our third late-season storm of note was a 17-21 inch blockbuster that hit Worcester and areas north on April 28th, 1987.

I was a freshman at Worcester State College for that storm, and had just picked up a girl from West Boylston High School for a date... because that's how I rolled in 1987, playboy! We went to a movie, came out, and there were 6 inches of snow on the ground. We had an Italian dinner somewhere, and there was a foot on the ground when we came out of the restaurant.

I had only been driving for a year, and had zero savvy. We nearly hit a plow when we skidded all the way down a hill on Route 62. We were close enough that all I could see out of my window was TOWN OF BOYLSTON on the plow's driver side door.

We also drove into a drift in some guy's yard in Berlin, Massachusetts. It ended well... the homeowner called his sons out to shove my car from the drift, and they came out single file... and each one was bigger than the last. The last son had the size and build of an industrial freezer. "Don't worry about it, just steer" is how the father replied when I offered to make Katie drive so that I could get out and help shove the car. They literally lifted my car and threw it from the drift.

I got zero (0) kisses from that date, too. The only time I even got a hug as when we nearly crashed into the plow, and that may have been a case where she was trying to wrestle me into a position where the plow blade hit me first. I really can't blame her.

Anyhow, 17 inches of snow is about as much as we get that late in the year. If you get snow on your lawn after May 10th, you just saw a regional record.

Abington

Supermoon Tide

I was neck deep in business, so I stayed in my neighborhood for the Supermoon tide.

I live on a Bay side beach, just east of a tiny, nameless stream. 

I grew up on a rather storm-tossed beach, so it is nice to live somewhere with a 3 foot high tide rather than an 11 foot high tide. Not that Buttermilk Bay isn't trying hard during the Supermoon, of course...

Our nameless stream overflowed her banks and began to run wild across the village. OK, it made a puddle. I was about 90 minutes after high tide.

At high tide at 11 PM, it managed to soak a road.

This is the post-edit shot. You should have seen how useless the original was.

The culprit.

Surf Check: South Shore, Saturday

The storm from Friday was still touching us on Saturday morning. We headed out to investigate. 

We started in Hull.

Why the Hull not?

The ocean started getting after us, so we fled to Cohasset.

Cohasset gets the short stick in our Surf Check series. This is mostly because Cohasset is one of those South Shore towns where you're 15 minutes from the next town. 15 minutes is a lifetime when everyone has high tide at the same time. By contrast, I can get from where I shoot in Marshfield to where I shoot in Duxbury in 10 minutes, and that includes stopping for breakfast.

We'll show Cohasset more love in the future.

Next stop, Scituate.

We did a different part of Scituate yesterday, so today we headed over to Old Scituate Light.

We hit Scituate at high tide.

Sea spray is essential if you want your house to look nautical.

Heading south, into Marshfield.

I think we're in Fieldston here, village boundaries are sort of funny.

We were in Ocean Bluff yesterday, so we tried a different neighborhood.

We were about a half hour after high tide.

We went from Vegas to Duxbury Beach.

It's never good when the interior streets are flooded.

...or when that walkway is supposed to be paved rather than beachy.

We were at the DBC almost an hour after high tide, but I needed a linguica bagel and, goddamnit, I had one.

It's tough to see, but the waves were undermining the seawall here.

The tide tonight could also be entertaining. If you need laughs, watch Stephen get soaked, below:

Tides later this week will be in the 11 foot range, so we were lucky with the timing of this storm.

We're finishing up in Plymouth.

Manomet is about where Nor'easter Alley ends, although you could end It in Duxbury or stretch it to Sandwich if you wanted.

See you next time!