Good evening everyone. As promised, I took a trip down to the Jersey Shore to check out some of the wave action and surf from Hurricane Florence on Tuesday. Florence, a very vast and large system, became extratropical this afternoon and that National Hurricane Center issued its last advisory on it. Nevertheless, there were still heavy surf advisories up and down the Atlantic Coast of the United States as well as parts of the Bahamas and Canada.

I first traveled to South Amboy, which is not too far from my home, and looked for a place where I could use my video camera to take some footage. I stumbled upon the town’s Waterfront Park, which is a wonderful park with some great views of Raritan Bay. The backdrop to the park are several neighborhoods worth of new town houses and condominiums that have been built within the past several years. Known as the Gateway to the Jersey Shore, South Amboy is a small community of about seven to eight thousand residents. I got as close as I could to the water, and managed to get some footage, but the wave action wasn’t really impressive.

Fortunately for folks in South Amboy, and unfortunately for me, the high surf and waves created by Florence’s circulation, were absorbed by the likes of nearby Staten Island, and other barrier islands in the region. Nevertheless, small waves did crash ashore in rapid succession. It was just a tad windy as Florence’s low pressure and high pressure over the Northeastern United States created yet another pressure gradient similar to the one experienced with the remnants of Ernesto almost two weeks ago. After being in South Amboy for about a half hour, I then got back in the car, and traveled down Route 35 to Laurence Harbor’s Waterfront Park.

Laurence Harbor is a costal area in the town of Old Bridge. Both Old Bridge and South Amboy are located in Middlesex County, and I can get to both towns with about a 20 minute drive. Like with South Amboy, Laurence Harbor’s Waterfont Park is a very nice park. Never have been to that one either. There were some nice walkways that jutted out into the water as well as large rocks along the coast that provides a bit of a difference from South Amboy’s Waterfront Park. Once again, I came away empty handed since the waves in this location were small, but still continuous. But, that wouldn’t be the case when I arrived at Sandy Hook at 1:30 PM following about a half hour drive.

Driving over the bridge leading to Sandy Hook, I saw that the waves and surf were out in full force. There was nothing obstructing the wave energy from Florence’s circulation along this portion of the Jersey coastline. I’ve been to Sandy Hook on several occasions since 2001, and these were the highest waves I’ve seen here in all my visits. According to the Weather Channel over the weekend, and on Monday, seas were expected to run between eight and twelve feet along the Jersey shoreline.

I ended up taking footage for about 16 minutes or so. I actually had to get out another tape for my camera since I had used up the remaining tape on the other DV cartridge in viewing the action in South Amboy and Laurence Harbor. You could hear the constant rumble of the waves crashing against the beach. While I got fairly close to the water, I didn’t get in it since there were also rip currents to watch out for. Even if you’re just standing in the water close to the beach, a strong current can still pull you in. There was plenty of foam and whitecaps with the incoming surf. There weren’t a lot of ships and boats in the water on this day. Many I guess heeded the advice to keep their boats in port. The National Weather Service had Tropical Storm Warnings posted for adjacent offshore waters in New York and New Jersey.

I was really glad to take the trip out. I gave a thought to traveling down further to Sea Bright and Long Branch, but decided to head back home since I had other things to do. Perhaps the next time a storm affects the area in the form of high surf, I will take a journey down to those two spots in addition to Sandy Hook.