Any web resources that give details of beach conditions?

[Privateer]

Hi All,

Recently, I have got a Minelab CTX 3030 and my wife has got an XP Deus. We would like to go beach detecting but as we live in Oxfordshire we are quite far away from any beach. Although the advantage is that as we're central, we can get to a lot of beaches.

We took the CTX 3030 to Bournemouth in May 2016 (before we got the XP Deus) and in only one hour had recovered three modern coins (1 pence, 2 pence, 50 pence) and a button. When this was the first time that we'd used the CTX (and using the standard beach program) I was very happy with the results as it was down to operator learning and not the machine! I did think that the Bournemouth beach was quite sanded in at the time as it was the first time that I'd looked at a beach in "detectorist mode".

I know that there are web resources that give details for surfing etc, but are there any web resources that give details of beach conditions such as level of sand and other conditions that are relevant to detectorists?

Regards,
Robert.

[Owain 1405]

Don't know of any sites that give updates on the amount of sand on a beach, would have thought that your best web resource for such info is this forum. Choose which beach you want to visit and then post in Beaches section asking what the conditions are like there, sure one of the locals on here will be able to tell you what the conditions are like before you visit. Hope that helps

[Bes99]

Although not in near-real time there is information on some beach levels in the UK available on websites. Topographic surveys are conducted on many UK beaches, these are analysed against the previous survey and the first survey. In my case in the North East between North Yorkshire and the Scottish boarders surveys are done twice yearly, in the spring and Autumn. Changes in elevation can be seen and are highlighted in the reports, in some cases you can pick out areas of the beach that have a trend of erosion from 2011 to the most recent survey, so this info may give you good areas to target.

The website for the North East is http://www.northeastcoastalobservatory. ... xt=Reports" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; on here just download the Full Measures or Partial Measures report for the local authority area that you are interested in. (again not all beaches are covered). For other UK beaches I suggest you visit http://www.channelcoast.org/reports/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and see what reports they hold they may have similar info.

Both these websites have coastal Aerial/Lidar photography that can be downloaded for free (you need GIS software to view the photography, some free software available on google is QGIS) The near real time wave buoy information is useful to see when the big storms hit and their size as this may cause sediment movement on your beach of interest and let you know the good times to go out. The Channel Coast website is best for wave buoy info.
I hope this information helps a bit, but to the best of my knowledge there is no real-time beach monitoring in operation in the UK.

[Koala]

Wind strength and direction normally affects sand added or taken away.


But as for as a website that reports beach conditions I know of none.

[Bes99]

Image from one of the reports covering Cayton bay showing the trend of sand level between 2011-2015