Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report
If you like to look ahead and try to time your metal detecting outings, you might watch the weather reports and forecasts. I often refer to the Nation Hurricane Center reports, especially during hurricane season. Above is the current report, which shows Tammy and one other little system, which is supposed to stay down there around Central America. Tammy has been hanging around for a while, but isn't moving very fast at all, which can be a good thing if you are hoping for beach erosion, but Tammy is going to remain far away from us as shown below.
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| Source: nhc.noaa.gov. |
Tammy will have some effect on us, but not a lot.
If you check Windy.com for example, the ECMWF model shows the following for Sunday (today).
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| Wind Sunday According to ECMWF Model as Shown on Windy.com. |
You can see Tammy lower right of center highlighted by the higher wind area shown as red. At that point the wind to the north of us is coming down from the north and northwest. The blue color indicates mild winds.
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| Wind Monday According to ECMWF Model as Shown on Windy.com. |
According to the same model as shown on Windy.com, Monday we'll be getting a little stronger wind, but not much, and the direction will be mostly northeast. Tammy has moved a little.
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| Wind Thursday According to ECMWF Model as Shown on Windy.com. |
By Thursday, Tammy is shown as almost gone, but you can still see a little circulation. By then the wind will be pretty much from the east.
So lets see how that lines up with the SurfGuru.com predictions. Here is the current surf chart for the week.
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| Surf Chart for the Fort Pierce Inlet Area From Surfguru.com. |
One thing to note is that I've been looking at the wind on Windy.com rather than the surf. You can switch the Windy.com display so it shows the surf size and direction, but I find the wind display sufficient a lot of the time Wind strength and direction is a good predictor, although, obviously not perfect, and it does not perfectly correlate with surf size and direction, but most of the time it works pretty well.
You will see times when the swells are hitting directly from the east, but as the water rolls up onto and off the beach, the wind actually pushes the water in one direction or another. That is just a personal observation, but one that is worth noting because it does affect the flow of sand.
I think you can benefit from both the Windy.com displays as well as the Surfguru displays or other similar sites, but the best thing for metal detecting success is to be out there every day. The more you detect, the more you will find. You don't always need great beach conditions. You can adapt to whatever is going on, and if you are out there, you will see what is happening. Each beach has its own unique configuration, and will respond differently, so while one beach is producing the neighboring beaches might not be. You'll learn how the different beaches respond to different conditions. For example, some beaches are more vulnerable to south swells than others. But overall, some conditions, such as those we call "summer" conditions, are not very good for metal detecting at all.
Although the best thing is to be out there detecting a lot, sometimes you just can't do that, so you try to pick the times when your chances are best. Watching the weather can help you do that to some extent, but, as I often say, there is always some place to hunt and something to find.
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On a related note, just two days ago I found the 14K gold ring shown below on a street. It is scuffed up like maybe it got run over. It weights 0.12 oz. troy. With the current price of gold being about $1994 per oz., that would make the ring worth close to $140.
The point is that you can treasure hunt all the time. I've found some pretty good things on streets in the past. Once I saw a watch on the street and pulled up to it, opened the door and picked it up without even getting out of the car. I've talked about that kind of thing before. See The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 9/6/11 Report - Visual Detecting, Mule Train & Meteorites
Here is a post on how to find paper money and ephemera.
It is a matter of keeping your eyes open and tuned.
Good hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net