South Padre Island, 11 miles beyond end of pavement, non-storm conditions, erosion from sea level rise, October 2017. The dunes in the middle left distance are actively calving dunebergs into the surf. Tides are like the weather, some are more extreme than others because of winds, tides and other things. June 2018 to May 2019 saw 53 extreme high tides that eroded into the dunes. Normal is zero times per year. The dunebergs show a peculiar angle on the dunes where their feet eroded away and large blocks of sand slide down into the surf. A duneberg can be seen calving in the middle left of the photo. A normal day in May on South Padre, about a dozen miles north of the end of pavement on the wilderness beach. Sea level rise started eroding the beach in the early twenty-teens. Now the beach is gone and high tides are eroding into the dunes. These King Tides occur in May and October when the sun and moon align just right to add another 20 percent to the tide. Before the beach eroded away, King Tides never eroded into the dunes. This is sunny day high tide flooding from the King Tide in Corpus Christi on Padre Island. The John F Kennedy Causeway is in the background on the left. This area is immediately adjacent Snoopies restaurant on the Laguna Madre at Corpus Christi Bay. These are the wind turbines on the mainland during King Tide taken from about mile 18 beyond the 4x4 only sign on Padre Island National Seashore. There's a bit of a physical mirage going on here where the distance is cast in a heat mirage, but that doesn't change the fact that much of the water in this shot should be dry sand flats. The wind turbines, oak motts (tree clumps) and house are all on the mainland side of the mile-wide Laguna Madre (Mother Lagoon) that parallels the mile-wide Padre Island for 100 miles along the south Texas Coast. High tide is about 25 to 50 percent higher higher than normal during the King Tide. The foreground should be dry sand flats, though more often with high tides they are underwater. Padre Island National Seashore, mile 25 beyond the end of pavement on the four-wheel drive only wilderness beach at The Big Dune. This is one of the widest areas of the island at about 2 miles. You can see the Laguna Madre in the distance. In the middle ground there is a bit of water where there should be dry land. The King Tide was in. The back island flats had spilled water into this low area of the island. This tidal flooding is now happening about 50 times per year on Padre Island. Normal is zero or almost times per year during non storm conditions. The Big Dune sticks up twice as high as the rest of the dunes for a dozen miles along the middle of the National Seashore and is a popular place for camping. The Padre Island Flats, 25 miles beyond end of pavement on the four-wheel drive only wilderness beach, 2015. At mile 25 there is a single giant sand dune that rises twice as high as the rest for miles. It's a favorite camping spot and a half mile inland across the back island salt grass the flats begin. Just inches above sea level the flats border the Laguna Madre, a 115 mile-long bay between 2 and 7 miles wide that parallels Padre Island. Historically the flats are caused by hurricane overwash and the persistent winds that drive sand farther and farther inland from the beach. The flats are up to two miles wide depending on the tide, or once dependent upon the tides. The flats are covered by water much of the time these days, and will be completely gone in a matter of years. South Padre Island, 22 miles beyond end of pavement on the wild 4x4 beach. Here and there a remnant beach remains during the chronic non-storm high tides that occur so frequently these days. Between June 2018 and May 2019, the tide gauge at Port Isabel in Brownsville measured greater than 2.5 feet above the mean sea level datum 53 times. These tides are high enough to erode into the dunes. Normal is zero times per year. Mile 55 Padre Island National Seashore. Treasures seldom seen on the lower Texas Coast are washing out of the sand as it is pulled offshore with the rising Gulf of Mexico. Padre Island National Seashore, about 45 miles south of the four-wheel drive only sign. These beach morning glory vines normally stabilize the beach from erosion, in our old climate. The beach is still a beautiful place. This is where the Texas coast makes the big bend. It's just north of the 25 mile signpost and known as the Devil's Elbow, likely in reference to the treacherous currents here where the upcoast current meets the downcoast current. King Tide, South Padre Island, April 2014, about 11 miles beyond end of pavement on the wild beach. King tides happen twice a year when the sun and moon align just right. They increase normal high tides by a few inches to a few feet in Texas, dependent on other tide influencing variables like wind and current. The King Tide in this photo happened during non-storm conditions. June 2018 to May 2019 on this beach, non-storm high tides were high enough to create dune erosion on 53 different days. Only about two-thirds of these days were King Tide days. Normal is zero times per year. It's still the beach, it's still beautiful, and hopefully, we can restore our climate back to within it's evolutionary boundaries in time to save what remains of our beaches. Early morning on the Gulf is magic. This shower grew donut-like into a fairy-ring. This is at about mile 25 on Padre Island National. Normally, before sea level rise eroded away the beach, the beach here would have been somewhere in the vicinity of 300 feet wide. The tide is about half way to low in this photo. The beaches most of us visit have been been nourished with sand from ship channels or offshore sources pumped onto the beach during the non-tourist season. The reason? Without a beach, condos, beach hotels, and resorts rentals of all kinds would be worthless. This beach has never been nourished and as a consequences has nearly been eroded away. High tide this day was all the way to the dunes. In our old climate before sea level rise, the beach in areas like this at high tide was 300 feet wide. Non-storm King Tide erosion on South Padre Island, about mile 13.5 beyond the end of pavement. The beaches most of us visit have been been nourished with sand from ship channels or offshore sources pumped onto the beach during the non-tourist season. The reason? Without a beach, condos, beach hotels, and resorts rentals of all kinds would be worthless. This beach has never been nourished and as a consequences has nearly been eroded away. Fifty-three times between June 2018 and May the tide gauge at Brazos Santiago Pass on South Padre Island recorded a non-storm high tide level in excess of 2.5 feet above mean sea level. This is the elevation that significant dune erosion begins. The tide this day was about 2.3 feet above normal. These signs went up on South Padre in 2019. Between June 2018 and May 2019, non storm high tides were 2.5 feet above normal 53 times. This tide level is when the surf begins significant erosion into the dunes and creates unsafe driving conditions. King Tide South Padre Island Mile 11. Beach erosion from sea level rise, about 9 miles beyond the end of pavement on the wild beach of South Padre Island, May 2019. Notice the big dune in the background with the peculiar erosion angle. This is a drone shot and we can't supersize it so any prints would be limited to about 12x18. Way up the four-wheel drive beach on South Padre in 2014, a little piece of history was being washed away. This was one of the few remnant beaches, now gone. Between June 2018 and May 2019, normal non-storm high tides were high enough on over 50 days to erode into the dunes. In some places by 2019, the dunes had been completely eroded away. And an important note, there is no subsidence on this beach. Way up the four-wheel drive beach on South Padre in 2014, a little piece of history was being washed away. This was one of the few remnant beaches, now gone. Between June 2018 and May 2019, normal non-storm high tides were high enough on over 50 days to erode into the dunes. In some places by 2019, the dunes had been completely eroded away. And an important note, there is no subsidence on this beach. The beaches most of us visit have been been nourished with sand from ship channels or offshore sources pumped onto the beach during the non-tourist season. The reason? Without a beach, condos, beach hotels, and resorts rentals of all kinds would be worthless. This beach has never been nourished and as a consequences has nearly been eroded away. In 2014, some of the last beach on the wild South Padre Island eroded away. Down by the Condos and fancy motels, the beach is nourished, or replenished from sand dredged from ship channels and offshore. Up the wild beach though, June 2018 to May 2019, normal high tides were eroding into the dunes more than 50 times. This erosion cut went on for miles. In 2019 this remnant beach was completely gone. Mile 13.5 beyond the end of pavement on the four-wheel drive South Padre Island wild beach. In places the dunes are eroded 15 feet high or even higher. The beaches most of us visit have been been nourished with sand from ship channels or offshore sources pumped onto the beach during the non-tourist season. The reason? Without a beach, condos, beach hotels, and resorts rentals of all kinds would be worthless. This beach has never been nourished and as a consequences has nearly been eroded away. Mile 10 on the wilderness four-wheel drive beach at South Padre Island. This is an easy easy one to see the erosion. All the dunes angled similarly have had their feet eroded out from under them, resulting in dune bergs sliding down into the surf. This is a screen capture from a drone shot so we can only provide about a 24-inch wide product. South Padre Island, milepost 10 . Very little shows what's going along our wild barrier island beaches better than this drone shot. The lone dune remaining has been sheered off into the surf. The rest of the dunes are simply gone. The tide wases the foot of the dune as this photo was taken, eroding dunebergs into the surf. This is a low resolution drone screen capture so we can't enlarge but up to about 24 inches. Low tide, Padre Island National Seashore, 50 miles south of the end of pavement on the four-wheel drive only beach. It doesn't take but a few days after the high tides are over and the erosion scars begin to heal. Here, soft sand on the top of the dune is flowing down, piling up on little ledges and creating a sand scree slope at the bottom. The clump of grass at the bottom of the erosion cut (middle screen) has calved off the top of the dune, it didn't grow there. Low tide driving on the beach is easy, the sand is hard and flat. High tide here, at mile 50 beyond the four-wheel drive only sign on Padre Island National Seashore, has created this vertical erosion cut that waves crash against and beach driving is all but impossible. The beaches most of us visit have been been nourished with sand from ship channels or offshore sources pumped onto the beach during the non-tourist season. The reason? Without a beach, condos, beach hotels, and resorts rentals of all kinds would be worthless. This beach has never been nourished and as a consequences has nearly been eroded away. The apparent roots seen sticking out of the side of the erosion cut are actually dune morning glory vines. These vinestraditionally prevent erosion, but these plants didn't evolve with climate change. Low tide, Padre Island National Seashore, 50 miles south of the end of pavement on the four-wheel drive only beach. It doesn’t take but a few days after the high tides are over and the erosion scars begin to heal. Here, soft sand on the top of the dune is flowing down, piling up on little ledges and creating a sand scree slope at the bottom. Low tide, Padre Island National Seashore, 50 miles south of the end of pavement on the four-wheel drive only beach. It doesn’t take but a few days after the high tides are over and the erosion scars begin to heal. Here, soft sand on the top of the dune is flowing down, piling up on little ledges and creating a sand scree slope at the bottom. The vines hanging down the erosion cut are beach morning glories that traditionally are supposed to prevent erosion, except these vines did not evolve with climate change. South Padre, Mile 22, last remnant Beach. Some places on South Padre, the dunes have already been washed away. There is a certain level of sea level rise where beach disintegration begins. The US Global Change Research Program says this rate is 10 mm per year. NOAA says sea level rise on South Padre is between 4 and 5 mm per year, but NOAA looks at 30 to 70 years of tide records and draws a trend based on the full record. When one looks at the last ten years of sea level rise records from NOAA, one sees a 10 mm per year sea level rise rate. Blown Out Wave, Padre Island National Seashore, mile 45 on the four-wheel drive wilderness beach. Surfside Texas. This beach has historically been impacted by man-caused subsidence, and sea level rise. Padre Island National Seashore, mile 25 beyond end of pavement on the four-wheel drive only beach. This is the view from the big dune, a favorite campsite; the dune is twice the height of anything within miles and sticks up like a volcano. The view from the top tells the story of beach erosion on our wild barrier islands between 2005 and 2017. About mile 11 beyond the end of pavement on the South Padre Island wilderness beach, these dunes have had their feet eroded away and are calving dunebergs into the surf. The erosion is caused by sea level rise that is beyond the threshold of barrier island beach disintegration. Between June 2018 and May 2019, normal, non-storm high tides have been so high they cause dune erosion. Surfside Beach, Texas 1977, just down the coast from Galveston. This beach is gone now from a combination of man-cased subsidence and sea level rise combined. Back in the day we would camp on the wilderness four-wheel drive only beach at Padre Island National Seashore for days or even weeks at a time. This was our favorite spot at 7 miles beyond the four-wheel drive only sign. We would drive down in our two wheel drive pickup during low tide where the sand was packed by the waves. It was beyond about this 7 mile mark where the "Little Shell" beach began, where even the wet, packed sand below the tide line was soft enough to stick a two-wheel drive. It was 100 to 300 feet of dry, soft, burning hot sand to the dunes. The big beach on Padre Island National Seashore in 1989, 7 miles beyond the four-wheel drive only sign. Beach driving was good this day as it had rained recently. The drier it is, the worse the driving because the sand gets soft and deep with dryness. It's difficult to see the dune trail, immediately next the dunes, they are so far away. The beach was once always this wide. Not anymore though. 2003, Mile 55 on Padre Island National Seashore. Fifty-five miles of four-wheel drive beach is a haul, or it once was when there was a big beach. Dry sand is soft, wet sand is generally hard. High tide line is at the front of the Suburban. Above high tide line the maximum speed was about 15 miles an hour in any kind of sane way. Today there is no beach at high tide, driving is challenging, and your auto mechanic will not appreciate your driving in salt water. Padre Island National Seashore (PINS), mile 35 beyond the four-wheel drive only sign. In 2013, PINS was closed for the first time due to a non-storm high tide that covered up the beach. This marked the end of the beach erosion period that saw beaches like this one washed offshore. Since 2013, the dunes have instead been eroding and at some places on South Padre Island, the dunes have been completely washed away. Padre Island National Seashore, 2005, mile 25 beyond the four-wheel drive only sign at the Big Dune. This is a favorite campsite for folks that can trek this far down a four-wheel drive only beach. The big dune here sticks up like a volcano of sand, twice as high as all the other dunes within miles and miles. The high tide line is easy to see with the brown seaweed way down the beach towards the water. The only time the sand above the high tide line is covered is is during storms. 2003, Padre Island National Seashore, Big Beach. Back in the day before the beach eroded away, there were three trails one could drive on. Each trail varied in difficult depending on how long it was since rain. Generally, the deepest sand was closest to the dunes where the "hero" trail was. This hero trail was truly a slog, at 2200 rpm, and 15 miles per hour, for hours on end. Even with the best of coolant systems when driving with a 15 mph wind, overheating must be watched for carefully. The middle trail, halfway to the high tide line, was less used and and not quite as dry and deep. The trail adjacent the high tide line had a little moisture in it sometimes and was generally the least soft. But most summers, when rain was uncommon and heat intense, the four-wheel drive only sign meant what it said. Fast-forward to the 20-teens: the beach is mostly gone at high tide everywhere, and so is the soft dry hard sand. The four-wheel drive only sign hasn't had a whole lot of meaning since about 2013. Padre Island National Seashore 2005, mile 45 beyond the four-wheel drive only sign Big Beach, telephoto crop. In 1989 the beach was immense. We would drive down 7 miles beyond the four-wheel drive only sign at Padre Island National Seashore and camp till our ice melted. An important thing back then, we had a two-wheel drive truck with fat tires. The fat tires helped but were no substitute for four-wheel drive. So we drove on the hard pack sand below the high tide line, only during low tide. We would pull up into the soft sand above the high tide line and if we got stuck, wouldn't have far to dig to get out. (Self Portrait) 1989, Padre Island National Seashore, 7 miles beyond the 4-wheel drive only sign: Those of us who are privileged to be old enough to have seen the beach back before the turn of the century, know what it means to have to go, uhm "to the dunes" to take care of personal business, and have to walk the death march through the infernal sands. Texas is a hot place. Water temps enter the high 80s about the end of July and stay there through August. We don't go to the beach a lot in August. It's so hot the sea breeze turns into a blast furnace a hundred feet away from the water. The beach was generally about a hundred yards wide back in the day, of hot sand and blast furnace breezes to get to privacy behind the dunes. Barefootedness was not an option. Shoes and flip flops packed with hot sand. You would get to the dunes where the really deep soft sand was and bury your feet six inches deep to get down to the cool sand so that you could bear to take care of business. The old '71 Chevy was our go to adventure vehicle for 20 years. Though it was only 2-wheel drive, we would drive the hard packed sand of Padre Island National Seashore seven miles past the four-wheel drive only sign until even the hard packed sand got too soft for comfort, and that is where we would camp. A duneberg or two are actively calving into the surf. The peculiar slope of the dunes means the surf has been eroding at their feet and dunebergs have been sliding down to be in turn, washed into the Gulf of Mexico. There is a duneberg calving and vertical erosion faces showing as the surf washes up against the dunes, eroding them into the Gulf of Mexico. This storm washover at mile 15 on South Padre is typical of the island this far south. There is less rain on the south part of the island vs. the north that limits dune vegetation from recolonizing quickly after a storm, allowing sand to blow and shift dunes from places to place. It's easy to see here that there is no beach. There is a beach artist on South Padre that creates with trash, I mean beach treasures. His creations are mostly up the beach far beyond the end of pavement and everything he creates uses found material directly from the beach. You have to look sharp as sometimes they are way back in the dunes. Some of the pieces have been set up too close to the water and have been sacrificed to the surf gods as erosion took them to the Gulf of Mexico. King Tide means driving through the surf; something my mechanic does not recommend because... It was this trip that a big wave slapped the underside of the suburban, washing over the transmission. The transmission breather hole on top of the transmission case apparently inhaled some sandy surf water, so my mechanic told me when I brought her in with a failing second gear because the transmission pan was full of sand. You see, when a hot transmission comes into contact with cold water, the air inside the transmission suddenly contracts, sucking air, or sandy surf water, in through the breather hole, resulting in a $3,500 new transmission. But hey, one doesn't get shots like this while staying home. This beach art was set up far back from the water, but non-storm high tides have moved in. The darker sand shows where the tide has soaked up to the surface from below. Sunrise Over The Gulf, King Tide season, Padre Island National Seashore, Mile 25 beyond the Four-Wheel Drive Only sign, at "The Big Dune." This is where the Texas coast makes the big bend. It's just north of the 25 mile signpost and known as the Devil's Elbow, likely in reference to the treacherous currents here where the upcoast current meets the downcoast current. South Padre Island beach erosion from normal sunny day high tides. Magnetite is a black, iron, magnetic sand that is common in most sands though in very small quantities. It concentrates in various places because it is heavier than the rest of the sand grains and results in black sand patches along the beach, where energy was a little lower because of currents, bars, rips or structural things like geologic strata that is harder than sand. The magnetite accumulates over time, , left behind on the beach as the lighter silica sand is washed out into the Gulf with the eroding beach. The last of the dunes are being eroded here at about mile 9 beyond end of pavement on the wild beach at South Padre. The black sand is magnetite, a small component of normal sand, whose grains are heavier than sand and left behind as the rising sea level washes beach sand out into the Gulf of Mexico. This is a drone shot only capable of about a 24 -inch photo. There is an artists on South Padre Island that collects beach trash and makes art with way up the on the wild beach. The hardhats come from oil rigs in the Gulf, where hapless oil rig workers bend over in the wind and then, watch their hardhats bounce off the catwalk and fall to the water far below. Spanish Mackerel caught at Mansfield Pass, 37 miles of wild beach beyond the end of pavement. One cannot drive further north on South Padre, or further south on Padre Island National Seashore, which is 60 miles north of the pass. This is all the beach that remains during high tide in King Tide season, and this is not a big day at all. The dunes are literally just feet away behind the beachgoers vehicles. Driving through salt water is highly unrecommended. The highest waves washed up under the vehicles, the shade canopies and that one tent. This date May 18, 2018, the tide was 1.6 feet above MLLW (Mean Lowest Low Water) - barnacle level. Between June 2018 and May 2019, the high tide was above 2.5 feet above MLLW 53 times during non-storm periods. Normal is zero during non-storm periods. Snoopy's Pier Restaurant, Corpus Christ, JFK Causeway, Laguna Madre sunset. A bamboo root washed up on the beach, and was stuck into a dune upside down. Notice there is no beach. This is King Tide season and there is beach then only at low tide. This is what beach erosion looks like, during non-storm conditions, because of sea level rise. North Flats windsurfing area, South Padre Island on the inside at the Laguna Madre. There are three vehicles parked at the edge of "Flats" in a couple of inches of water. This area is normally dry, being submerged only during tropical storm conditions. This day was a sunny day in May, no storms anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere. A beautiful day on South Padre. Way up the wild beach on South Padre, far beyond the end of pavement on the four-wheel drive beach, an unnamed found object artists plies his or her trade. Mile 12 beyond end of pavement on the wild beach of South Padre Island. The dunes here have been completely eroded away. What remains is black sand. This is magnetite, a common but small component of any normal sand. Magnetite is iron crystal, magnetic, and heavier than the rest of the sand grains so, when the rising sea level erodes the beach and washes sand out into the deep waters of the Gulf, the heavier magnetite particles are left behind. This was the first time Padre Island National Seashore was closed due to non-storm high water in 2013. High tide this day happened at night. The highest wave swash was up to the edge of the dunes. Notice how there is no dune erosion yet. We were camped at the Big Dune at mile 25 beyond the four-wheel drive only sign. The surf ran up underneath the truck. It's not like we haven't parked to close to the surf before and had a rogue wave or two run up under the truck. But before, the beach was 200 feet wide. There used to be three trails down the beach. the one seen here adjacent the dunes, one just above high water mark 150 to 200 feet or more from the dunes, and then one that ran in the middle of the two. A light bulb and erosion blocks on South Padre Island during King Tide. These folks are not driving in salt water for no reason. This is all the beach that remains. NOAA Technical Report 092 in July 2020 says 2019 saw 1.5 inches of sea level rise, or 38 mm, average across all NOAA tide gauges in the lower 48. The long term global sea level rise is 3.5 mm. The 2019 rise beat the previous 1-year rise record by 1 inch. South Padre Island, Beach Access Road 5, May 2019, King Tide. These folks are not driving in salt water for no reason. This is all the beach that remains. Notice the dunes. The tourists are stuck between the base of the dunes and the water, with the biggest waves washing up under their vehicles. NOAA Technical Report 092 in July 2020 says 2019 saw 1.5 inches of sea level rise, or 38 mm, average across all NOAA tide gauges in the lower 48. The long term global sea level rise is 3.5 mm year. The 2019 rise beat the previous 1-year rise record by 1 inch. South Padre Island, Beach Access Road 5, May 2019, King Tide. The dry white sand in the upper left of this photo is where this tide has not yet reached. This is all the beach that remains. In July 2020 NOAA said 2019 saw 1.5 inches of sea level rise in the US -- ten times the global average. The long term global sea level rise is 3.5 mm. The 2019 rise beat the previous 1-year rise record by 1 inch. South Padre Island, Beach Access Road 5, May 2019, King Tide.
