First Flood of 2016: Coastal Flood Warning in effect until 8:00 and Wind Advisory in effect until 4:00 pm today

March 10, 2016 by 3 Comments

The Coastal Flood Warning proved true for our home. We have been pumping out water that has come over our bulkhead since about 4:30 this morning. We are “lucky” that the winds were more south than southwest or we’d have a whole different scenario to contend with.

Please pardon my dark photos and videos!

It looks like somebody may have lost lost their “sail board” (or something like that).

March 10 2016 storm

I will be adding a couple more videos soon.

This video is just past high tide of 14.5 (higher than predicted).

And you can see from this video, that it’s still blowing… hubby just started the pump again.

The Coastal Flood warning remains in effect until 8:00 am this morning…only one more hour to go! Yippee!

We have a Wind Advisory in effect until 4:00 pm today.

Our next high tide is at 5:50 pm and is estimated at 11.42.

Now it’s time for Hitch to help with the clean up!
2016-03-10 06.52.07

I hope all our neighbors are fairing well!

Update 8:30 am:

Here’s a photo from Beach Drive neighbor, Rene, showing a log jam at the Harbor West Condos.
12805770_1277913518890929_455338651726437032_n

If you have a photo of today’s storm along Beach Drive and want to share it, let us know!

Filed Under: Tides, Weather

National Weather Service issues Coastal Flood Advisory for Seattle

March 9, 2016 by Leave a Comment

The high tide I referenced in last night’s “barking dog” report has been bumped up to an estimated 14.3 feet at 5:38 am on Thursday morning. This coincides with gusts that are predicted from Wind Alert to have gusts up to 50 mph.

From the Coastal Flooding Advisory, issued at 3:12 am:

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN SEATTLE HAS ISSUED A COASTAL
FLOOD ADVISORY...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 2 AM TO 8 AM PST
THURSDAY.

* COASTAL FLOODING...MINOR TIDAL OVERFLOW IS LIKELY AROUND THE
  TIME OF HIGH TIDE TONIGHT.

HIGH ASTRONOMICAL TIDES...AUGMENTED BY UNUSUALLY LOW ATMOSPHERIC
PRESSURE...WILL LIKELY FLOOD VERY LOW LYING COASTAL AREAS.
FLOODING IS EXPECTED TO BE MINOR AND ONLY LAST A FEW HOURS AROUND
THE TIME OF HIGH TIDE.

THE TABLE BELOW GIVES TIME AND HEIGHT OF PREDICTED TIDES...THE
PREDICTED TIDAL ANOMALY DUE TO LOW PRESSURE AND OTHER FACTORS...
AND THE SUM OF THE PREDICTED TIDE AND THE PREDICTED ANOMALY.


STATION NAME: SEATTLE
DAY     TIME         PRED      ANOMALY     PRED + ANOMALY
THU     05:38 AM     12.44     ~ 1.9               14.3

Based on these predictions, we are pulling out our pumps today just in case we flood early tomorrow morning. It may be a good idea to check on your waterfront neighbors to make sure they’re aware of the potential flooding.

There is also a Small Craft Advisory in effect through Thursday afternoon.

Filed Under: Puget Sound, Safety, Tides, Weather Tagged With: ,

King Tides coming next Week

January 6, 2016 by Leave a Comment

We have extra high tides (aka King Tides) predicted next week.

  • Wednesday, January 13th at 7:35 AM: 12.9
  • Thursday, January 14th at 8:14 AM: 13
  • Friday, January 15th at 8:55 AM: 12.9

Hopefully it will be as sunny and calm as it is today. Although it was a spectacular sight along Alki with last month’s King Tide.

Filed Under: Tides, Weather

King Tide

December 18, 2015 by 1 Comment

We have a high tide of 12.5 minutes away at 10:14 am this morning. There is a small craft advisory in effect until this evening with waves of 2 to 4 feet.

Our intrepid reporter, Scupper is on the scene at Mee Kwa Mooks and has just shared this video of the tides washing over the walkway.

Filed Under: Puget Sound, Tides Tagged With:

Wooo weeeeee! “Fauntleroy stench” stink’n up the beaches

September 7, 2015 by 6 Comments

Don’t blame it on the dog or over clean the cat box. This mornings low tides and the lack of a good breeze is making it nearly unbearable around Beach Drive. Rotting seaweed or sea lettuce is busy emitting hydrogen sulfide into the air we breath.

The term “Fauntleroy stench” was coined back in the late 1980’s when the the cove and other areas around the sound experienced this same rotten egg sensation. The Seattle Times wrote an article about it during the hot summer 1998 when Fauntleroy residents were complaining of headaches and nausea due to the strong odors.

In small amounts, the gas can burn the eyes, nose and throat, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In moderate amounts, it can bring on headaches, dizziness, nausea, vomiting and respiratory problems.

Contrary to what you might think, opening windows and doors while running fans is the best way to purge the scourge from your home.

Some experts believe that a mild winter combined with a prolonged hot summer is the yummy recipe to bring the stench. If that’s the case, next year could be a real duesey! I just think it smells like Labor Day.

seaweed

 

Scupper, reporting for Beach Drive Blog

Filed Under: Puget Sound, Tides, Uncategorized

Weather Apps/sites for predicting wind, waves & tides

December 8, 2014 by 2 Comments

We’ve used several weather sites and apps over the years in helping us predict when we get to go fishing in our driveway. Yep, we’re well into the season of higher tides and southerly winds. “Yuletides” measuring close to 13 feet will be gracing our shores starting on Christmas while the dreaded King Tides  (my definition is over 13 feet) start up later in January.

BDB compiles several different government weather sources to come up with the Barking Dog warning…

A “barking dog report” means that we are very closely watching the sound and preparing to possibly flood. It may or may not happen (hopefully not!!). Consider us your neighbor’s barking dog who’s barking at potential trouble.

This has me wondering if there are any free sites/apps that can provide all the info you want in an easy to understand format. It’s a safe bet that most weather sites are pulling their stats off of NOAA satellites/beacons so it’s just a matter of which site/app works for you. Here’s a few freebies that stood out to me…

Predict Wind includes a robust amount of weather info (includes predicted wave & tide heights) but totally whiffed in predicting our last big blow in November. They claim that their custom report/models are used by America’s Cup & Volvo Ocean sailors more than any other forecast applications. They’re predicting that we’ll be seeing peak gusts of 50 knots around 9:oo AM tomorrow…

PredictWind

iWindsurf was recommended by a neighbor and is now my go-to app. It accurately predicted our last couple of windy days off of Alki Pt. This snapshot of their Prediction Table is showing steady wind of 21 knots with peak gusts to 48 for tomorrow at 5:00 PM.

IMG_0227

There are several good sources for tide heights but I prefer Tide Graph HD from Brainware LLC. Here’s the height for Seattle @ 6PM tomorrow…

TideGraphHD

 

Wave height is pretty much a factor of wind speed around here. The fetch or travel distances approx. the same from North to South.

Wind 10-20 Kt = 3 footers

Wind 15-25 Kt = 4 footers

Wind 25-35 Kt = 6 footers

Wind 35-45 Kt = up to 8 feet! (BTW, predicted by NOAA Marine forecast for Puget Sound/Hood Canal this Thursday evening)

 

IMG_3522 Beach Drive’s own Psycho of the Soup uses the IWindsurf app to map out wind speed forecasts for slaying the surf along the drive.

 

Scupper, reporting for Beach Drive Blog

 

Filed Under: Tides, Weather

Pump Station #39 project under way @ 5000 block of Beach Drive

November 8, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Construction for placing a permanent diesel generator at SPU Pump Station #39 is well under way. It’s the last of 9 pump sites recently granted a permanent solution for keeping the sewage flowing during a power outage. Several other sites around the city  require portable generators to be hauled in during outages.

IMG_2118

This project required a City Council vote early this year to approve the proposed “shallow” set-back from the sidewalk. The proposed location of the generator is actually a compromise helped along by effected neighbors that didn’t want the generator located further up the hill. Their first choice, along with others along the drive would be to have the entire project located underground. This would cost approx 3 times as much as the proposed so it appears a fair compromise was worked out. Other compromises worked out by our local neighbors include an eight foot wood fence rather than the standard 6′ chain-link and that the generator is only run/tested once every month for 30 minutes rather than the weekly noise which is standard elsewhere.

Rumor has it, some neighbors were actively working on making this one of Seattle’s new “pocket parks“.

 

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The station was originally installed in 1959 and is located on city of Seattle property.

Scupper, reporting for Beach Drive Blog

Filed Under: Beach Drive Homes, Tides

Tis the season for wind, waves and rain

September 28, 2013 by Leave a Comment

I was caught on the West Seattle Bridge late this afternoon in an amazing display of Mother Nature’s force. It was more rain, wind and water than I have ever witnessed on the bridge. I’m very glad to be home!

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Safety, Tides, Uncategorized, Weather

Meet Beach Naturalist at Constellation Park and Lincoln Park

July 17, 2013 by

Meet Beach Naturalist (they’ll be wearing red hats) from Seattle Aquarium at Constellation Park and Lincoln Park beaches

  • Saturday, July 20th: 9:30 am – 11:30 am
  • Sunday, July 21st: 9:30 am – 12:30 pm
  • Monday, July 22nd: 10:00 am – 1:30 pm
  • Tuesday, July 23rd: 10:30 am – 1:30 pm
Filed Under: Tides

Meet Beach Naturalist at Constellation Park and Lincoln Park Beaches

July 3, 2013 by

Meet Beach Naturalist (they’ll be wearing red hats) from Seattle Aquarium at Constellation Park and Lincoln Park beaches

  • Saturday, July 6th: 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
  • Sunday, July 7 th: 10:am – 12:30 pm
Filed Under: Tides
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