30 Nov The ghost of sea level rise yet to come

“Today’s high winds out of the north created quite a storm surge along the southern shore of the Bras d’Or Lake,” writes hydrologist Fred Baechler. “Winds at the Johnstown [weather] station showing sustained at 20 to 30 km/hr, with lot of gusts in the 70 to 80 km/hr range, since at least midnight.” Here’s a photo Baechler snapped between 1:00 and 2:00 p.m., Thursday, at the Ben Eoin Beach RV Resort & Campground.

The Ben Eoin trailer park sits atop a classic barachois, the word used in Atlantic Canada, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius to describe a coastal lagoon partially or completely separated from a lake or ocean by a sand or shingle bar. They are common landforms on the Bras d’Or, and they will probably all disappear by the time my grandchildren reach their 40’s. (A shingle bar is one made of gravel or cobbles. Thank you, Wikipedia, for both definitions.)

Here’s an aerial shot of Ben Eoin beach on a calmer day: