Virginia

Yorktown Beach

Type locality for the Yorktown Formation. The fossil shell hash here is so good it has its own shell mountain (Pliocene scallop reef!).

⚠ Partial inputs

today

Fair

2.2ft swing · neap tide · low 10:41 PM · ~0.4ft below predicted (offshore wind) · post-storm · +15 event boost

Today at a glance

Updated 2026-07-21T08:46:19.537Z

Workable but not ideal. Best window opens around the 10:41 PM low (0.5 ft, likely 0.4 ft below NOAA → more beach exposed). Moderate SW winds (11 mph); offshore push at the low keeps the beach exposed.

Next 3 days: Tomorrow is the pick (60); today runs cooler at 51.

Best Window Today

10:41 PM

Plan around the fair low-tide window. 2.2ft swing · neap tide · low 10:41 PM · ~0.4ft below predicted (offshore wind) · post-storm · +15 event boost.

Hunt score

Fair

Astronomical low

0.5 ft

10:41 PM

Predicted real low

0.1 ft

below NOAA by 0.4 ft

Low-window wind

10 mph

Offshore (good)

Tides: NOAA Yorktown USCG, VA (station 8637689)

Best window this week

Fri, Jul 24 · 11:59 AM

2.0ft swing · low 11:59 AM · post-storm · 3.80" recent rain · +15 event boost

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 10:02 AM · Sunset 12:24 AM

Wind right now

11 mph from SW

Gusts 25 mph · best from S

Wind is offshore — water blown out, more beach exposed. Good.

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 8637689 (Yorktown USCG, VA) — 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 51

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

Best low

10:41 PM at 0.5 ft

Predicted real low

0.1 ft

Wind deviation

More beach by 0.4 ft

Explain this scoreShow breakdown ▾

💡

Analysis

Fair. Standard conditions — go for the volume hunt.

Tide range

18.1 / 50

Today's swing is 2.2 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

6.2 / 15

Low in daylight = you can actually hunt.

Recent stir

1.0 / 10

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

Wind setup at low

3.3 / 10

Forecast wind drains 0.4 ft of water around the low.

Surf bonus

1.0 / 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 40 mph triggers post-storm boost.

Event boostadded

+15

Manual + auto events (storms, drought, beach renourishment).

Why not higher? The biggest unused headroom today is tide range (+31.9 pts available). A day with that maxed out would score around 83.

Show the math

components: 18.1 + 1.8 + 6.2 + 1.0 + 3.3 + 1.0 + 0.0 = 31.4 × storm multiplier 1.15 = 36.1 + event boost +15 = 51.1 final = 51

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 + 15 event boost, clamped 0–100.

Score model 2026.04.29 · how this is calculated

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