Date: Wednesday, 15th March 2023 
 

Monitoring Team: Blake, Nick

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Analysis & Report: David Bills-Thompson, PFCG Technical Officer and Data Co-ordinator

 

Commentary: This month we are providing a new table to illustrate our data.The table shown here is derived from actual measurements of the beach sand elevation at typical points along East beach. The colours are used to provide an approximate indication of the sand level along the beach compared with historical levels. The range of sand levels and the values at which the colours change are shown in the colour legend at the bottom of the table.

The percentage represents the current sand height compared to the historical minimum and maximum heights ever measured at that location since 2013. These values are calculated from the measurements used to produce the profile charts that give additional information about the sand dynamics at that monitoring point.

Sand levels cycle up and down with some correlation to seasonal change and always with a response to storm surges so it is normal to see red squares appear in the 'Current' column of the table. At the next measurement cycle approximately 6 weeks later, that red data will now appear in the 'Previous' column of the table while the 'Current' column reflects the most recent sand level at that point.

The third column labelled '12 Mnths' shows the sand level that existed about one year ago.

These three columns give an overview of the sand level now, how it has changed since the previous measurement and how it compares to last year's results.

A positive number in a red square is usually not a concern but if the number is negative, it indicates that a new low sand level has been detected and further consideration of all the data at that point should be investigated.

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