Where Did the Water Go?

Here are some pictures of our boat docked at Hartge Yacht Harbor in Galesville, MD. In three years here I have not seen the water so low. We are sitting in the mud as can be seen in the picture showing the water line at the bow. The ice-eaters are now water fountains. The big East Coast storm is blowing the water i out of the Chesapeake. Being stuck in the mud at least the boat is not rocking and rolling with the high winds. The marina staff are going around removing snow from the decks of boats. I thought I might have to do it myself although if I were to wait a few days it would all melt. Not much anyway.

We're down the bay quite a bit but the tide is & has been darn low here too. We walked around the shoreline on the frozen creek this morning.

Most of the water has blown out of Stoney Creek, too. Central Chesapeake, just south of the Key Bridge.

You guys are killing me. Brrrrrr......

Apparently gone to the northeast. Numerous videos and newscasts showing flooding in Scituate, Boston, Provincetown, Nantucket, etc. Some flooding in NJ as well.

DHeckrotte said:

Apparently gone to the northeast. Numerous videos and newscasts showing flooding in Scituate, Boston, Provincetown, Nantucket, etc. Some flooding in NJ as well.

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I just saw this.

BOSTON (WHDH) - Thursday’s nor’easter brought historic, dangerous and potentially-deadly flooding to the Boston coastline and surrounding areas.

Severe flooding on Boston’s Atlantic Avenue Thursday afternoon prompted a massive emergency response.

Firefighters could be seen rescuing motorists with boats after the high tide left the area under water. The National Weather Service Boston reported the area was nearing the highest ever recorded ride. NWS Boston said the previous record was set back in 1978..

We are stuck in Georgetown SC due to weather. The normal temps here should be 55. 5" of snow and ice yesterday. On our way to Florida. Maybe well have a different plan next year. It is cold here but things on the Chesapeake are much worse.

fryedaze, that's the worst! Ice AND then a smattering of snow to add insult to misery. Be careful on those decks! Yeah, normally when you get down around Myrtle Beach the weather becomes a little more forgiving. I hope your heatpumps are keeping up.
When you say a different plan next year, I'm assuming you mean leaving at least a month earlier!

Man, u guys think you have it bad...why it was 37 last night in Fort Pierce. The year around live aboards have their only hoodie out, their sandals and one of 2 pairs of socks on and...dare I say it...long pants as they grimace, tremble and cuss. Everything they have on is wrinkled after being on the bottom layer of the drawer. We are strong...we will trudge on.

We have had 20-30 kts winds for the past 3 weeks. And yes, it's cold. It's a full moon (close) so tides are high, and the storm has raised that by about a foot. Do you know what all this means?

It's winter in New England. Much a do about nothing.

I'd like to tell you that I'm in Fl and am sympathetic, but I'm stuck in MD with a few business obligations till Sunday. Shoveling snow sucks! At least the trawler is in FL.



Ted

Today in Baltimore at 1312 the water level was observed at -3.58 feet below the average low tide. Which is now the lowest observed tide relative to average low tide since November 21st, 1989. Blowing steady at 30 and gusting to 35 knots from NW. The bay is “blown out”.

Keep thinking 'global warming'.

Well, that's the thing about 'global warming'. It's more correctly thought of as 'climate change'. Little changes here and there seem to unpredictably cause bigger changes elsewhere. I work very hard to not 'believe' anything. But I work hard to accept facts. The problem is that facts are based upon, well, who quite knows what - or why. Just because the weather has seemed pretty screwy over the last twenty years does not in itself mean that it's 'climate change'. Bottom line for me is to accept that we humans do indeed change things on a global basis, and I'd like to believe that if we didn't soil our own, and only, nest, we probably would not be seeing 'climate change'.

Hi,


That's how it goes, everyone can influence even small things and bring about change in either a better or worse direction ... and if your MR Trump would not have begun to change with his better greed (black carbon) that is one of the biggest ...


NBs

Hi Dave, Keep that heater cranked up, its a balmy 85 down here, Dawn says hi to Betsey

We're having extreme low tides, too, here in St. Pete, FL. Very low temps for us, in the 40s to 50s and frost warnings in the neighboring counties.

Question for you tide experts, how does the low temps affect tide? Sure we have high winds, too, but with high winds and high temps, we don't have low tides. I have a hard time understanding this.

Couldn't get the trawler out this past week, but did get the 28 ft SeaRay out the last two days at high tide. But a really cold and windy ride.

auskiwi said:

Hi Dave, Keep that heater cranked up, its a balmy 85 down here, Dawn says hi to Betsey

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Will do, it always makes me smile when we hear from old Looper friends.

After 5 days of north wind and low tides in Louisiana this is what one of my favorite fishing spots looked like. I wish I could have launched the boat because I know with the low water the fish were stacked up.

Besides the moon's gravitation and wind, water levels are affected by atmospheric pressure.

That the atmospheric pressure can have so much effect is surprising to me. I mean atmospheric pressure is somewhere around 14 psi (14.696 according to the 'net) and the variation is + or - what, one psi? And water weighs 65 pcf. Yet, a storm surge on top of a high tide...

A one inch change in barometric pressure in inches of mercury means about a foot of water. Specific gravity of Hg I think is around 13.

So if barometer drops from 30.1 down to 29.1, could see a foot difference just due to that.

But when B drops that much, there is certainly going to be some wind involved, and that will likely have a larger effect.

O C Diver said:

I'd like to tell you that I'm in Fl and am sympathetic, but I'm stuck in MD with a few business obligations till Sunday. Shoveling snow sucks! At least the trawler is in FL.

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Ted

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Dare I say it? Yeah, can’t help myself “Run Forest run”

Bring a wrinkled up hoodie so you will blend.

What I know about a change in barometric pressure is that when it's changing my head feels like I'm coming off of an all night drink fest. 36 hours ago it came on & it's just subsiding today. The theorize some animals have a built in compass to get them where they're going during migration. I've got a built-in barometer. Great. I'd rather have a compass.

Ski in NC said:

A one inch change in barometric pressure in inches of mercury means about a foot of water. Specific gravity of Hg I think is around 13.

So if barometer drops from 30.1 down to 29.1, could see a foot difference just due to that.

But when B drops that much, there is certainly going to be some wind involved, and that will likely have a larger effect.

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Ski,

Yes, that's what they say, in fact I thing it's closer to 2 feet with an inch and the higher the pressure the lower the tide.

But it doesn't work that way in my neighborhood. We had pretty normal tides most of Dec. and got hit with the extreme low tides this past week. The only striking change when the tides dropped was the temperature dropped. Winds have been high and low and barometric pressure has been between 30.10 and 30.31 for the most part throughout the time frame.

We always get extreme low tides in the winter months, but I can't figure out how to predict it other than cold air, which doesn't make sense.

The tide charts did indicate low tides, but not nearly as low as it is.

Still trying to figure it out....