Come Visit OC
Nor’easter Diminishing Gradually
OCEAN CITY BEACH FRIDAY AFTERNOON: Waves and wind from the Nor'easter carved this notch out of the sand in front of the Boardwalk. I don't know what caused the color pattern in the sand.
HIGH WATER: Bay water was right up to the bottom of this pier in West OC, pushing water between the planks. This photo was taken a couple of hours BEFORE high tide Friday afternoon.
The steel gate is secured against this thick concrete sea wall on the Boardwalk.
This is a good November weekend to get away and visit Ocean City, Maryland. You’ll have plenty of company. Lots of folks were out and about Friday afternoon, looking at the surf, or checking on their property.
The three-day Nor’easter that’s hammered Ocean City and the rest of the East Coast from Georgia to New Jersey is moving slowly north. Rough weather continues, but the storm is diminishing gradually. This weekend will be a good opportunity to witness the power of Mother Nature. Street flooding may continue to be an issue around the high tides.
We had hardly any rain Friday afternoon, but the North-Northeast wind remains fierce. If you stand facing north on the Ocean City beach or boardwalk, the sting of the blowing sand will force you to close your eyes. We’ll have more showers overnight and Saturday morning, before the rain ends Saturday afternoon.
Winds are 25-40 mph Friday afternoon and evening, diminishing overnight to 10-20 mph Saturday morning. By Saturday night, the wind should die down to 5-10 mph.
Unusually heavy surf pounded the beach continuously Friday, although the waves are not as high as Thursday. Ocean City has undoubtedly sustained some beach erosion, and heavy surf will continue at least through Saturday.
Other than beach erosion, Ocean City has come through the storm unscathed, with no property damage that I could see.
If you visit the resort this weekend, you’ll find plenty of hotels and restaurants open. There’s even a bright, new Dough Roller restaurant that opened this week on Route 50 in West Ocean City.
Forecasters expect the storm to diminish further Saturday in Ocean City, but it’s hard to predict how quickly conditions will return to normal. The high temperature Saturday will be about 61, with a low Saturday night around 54. I had hoped to see sunshine on Sunday, or maybe even Saturday afternoon, but the forecast now is for a cloudy Saturday afternoon and Sunday.
You might experience some delays in town due to street flooding and traffic re-routing. As the high tide approached Friday afternoon, Ocean City Police closed southbound Philadelphia Avenue at 12th Street, rerouting southbound traffic onto Baltimore Avenue. Traffic barrels were placed down the center of Baltimore Avenue, creating one lane of traffic northbound, and one lane heading south to the Route 50 bridge.
Most of Philadelphia Avenue and St. Louis Avenue south of 12th Street were flooded at high tide late Friday afternoon. Our next high tide will be early Saturday morning, about 5:10 a.m., with another high tide at 5:23 p.m. Saturday.
The longest traffic delay Thursday and Friday afternoons were coming into town on the Route 50 bridge. Friday afternoon, the two eastbound lanes had to merge to one coming off the bridge, because of the closure of Philadelphia Avenue and the single-lane traffic on Baltimore Avenue. Traffic going out of town flowed quickly Friday afternoon, with one lane south on Baltimore Avenue, but two lanes going west on the Route 50 Bridge.
The traffic situation is complicated by the closure of the Route 90 bridge, which has been shut down for repairs not related to the storm. – John Hayden
Many more photos to come in a new post Friday night. Please check back.
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