Delaware

Cape Henlopen State Park

Delaware's gem. Walking from the point northward yields Pleistocene-reworked teeth and the occasional surprise from the offshore deposits.

⚠ Partial inputs

today

Fair

3.8ft swing · neap tide · low 9:34 PM · post-storm

Today at a glance

Updated 2026-07-21T08:46:45.929Z

Workable but not ideal. Best window opens around the 9:34 PM low (0.9 ft, likely 0.2 ft above NOAA → less beach). Moderate S winds (12 mph); seas 2–3 ft, some stir.

Next 3 days: Thu is the pick (59); tomorrow runs cooler at 45.

Best Window Today

9:34 PM

Plan around the fair low-tide window. 3.8ft swing · neap tide · low 9:34 PM · post-storm.

Hunt score

Fair

Astronomical low

0.9 ft

9:34 PM

Predicted real low

1.1 ft

above NOAA by 0.2 ft

Low-window wind

6 mph

Onshore (drowns beach)

Tides: NOAA Lewes, DE (station 8557380)

Best window this week

Mon, Jul 27 · 1:40 PM

4.1ft swing · low 1:40 PM

Score

Good

Confidence: Partial — on-site outcomes, dossier verification. Hover the badge above for the input-by-input breakdown.

Tonight's moon

First quarter

49% illuminated

Sunrise 9:53 AM · Sunset 12:22 AM

Wind right now

12 mph from S

Gusts 21 mph · best from E

Wind is mostly offshore — slightly more beach.

Past 7 days

Compare model output to your actual visits.

Next 7 days

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▼ means the forecast wind will likely push the real low below NOAA's prediction (more beach to hunt). ▲ means it will likely sit above the prediction (less beach). Rough rule: ~0.04 ft per mph of sustained wind during the low-tide window.

Tide times: NOAA CO-OPS station 8557380 (Lewes, DE) — local time, MLLW datum. Click to verify on NOAA. Cards show LOWS only (best for hunting); highs are visible on the tide curve below.

Tide curve · next 48h

🌤️ Weather & Wave Forecast

Impact on visibility and stir-up over the next 5 days.

Onshore Wind: Pushes water in (tide sits higher) and stirs up the bottom. Good for "new" teeth, bad for visibility.

Offshore Wind: Water blown out (tide sits lower). Maximum beach exposure for hunting the low tide line.

Why today scores 48

The Hunt Score blends tide range, lunar phase, daylight timing, recent stir, wind setup, and surf.

Wave height 2.4 ft

Best low

9:34 PM at 0.9 ft

Predicted real low

1.1 ft

Wind deviation

Less beach by 0.2 ft

Explain this scoreShow breakdown ▾

💡

Analysis

Fair. Standard conditions — go for the volume hunt.

Tide range

31.5 / 50

Today's swing is 3.8 ft (saturates at 6 ft = 50 pts).

Spring tide

1.8 / 15

Within ±2 days of a new or full moon = wider swing.

Daylight timing

6.4 / 15

Low in daylight = you can actually hunt.

Recent stir

0.1 / 10

Past 72h onshore wind churn (only counts hours that already happened).

Wind setup at low

-2.0 / 10

Forecast wind piles 0.2 ft of water around the low.

Surf bonus

4.0 / 5

1–4 ft of recent surf = clean sorting; >7 ft = unfishable.

Recent rainfall

0.0 / 3

No measurable rain in the past 48h — no runoff signal.

Storm multipliermultiplier

1.15×

Peak gust 33 mph triggers post-storm boost.

Event boostadded

No active events for this site today.

Why not higher? The biggest unused headroom today is tide range (+18.5 pts available). A day with that maxed out would score around 67.

Show the math

components: 31.5 + 1.8 + 6.4 + 0.1 + -2.0 + 4.0 + 0.0 = 41.8 × storm multiplier 1.15 = 48.0 final = 48

What's NOT in this score

We are deliberate about which factors to include. These are not currently in the model:

Hunt pressure. A “hunts this week” chip is shown on each location page for transparency, but it does not change the score yet. We need more outcomes per site before a penalty would be statistically meaningful.
Wave period / swell direction. We use wave height only. Long-period groundswell sorts material differently than short wind chop, but Open-Meteo doesn't expose period reliably.
Barometric pressure trend. Falling pressure = approaching storm = building stir. Currently we wait for the wind to actually arrive.
Water temperature, clarity, salinity. Affects comfort but not (directly) what teeth wash up.
Weekday vs weekend. A 70 on Tuesday is often better in practice than a 70 on Saturday because of crowds, but we don't adjust for that.
Beach renourishment. Fresh sand buries everything. We capture this only when an admin logs a manual event — there's no auto-detection.

If you think we should add one of these, log a hunt with notes — every rated outcome helps us decide which signals actually predict tooth count.

Hunt Score

Sum of components × 1.15, clamped 0–100.

Score model 2026.04.29 · how this is calculated

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