Real time data from the Bellport dock is presented on the Great South Bay Observatory page.
Hurricane Sandy caused significant over washes and three breaches in Fire Island in the area between the historic Old Inlet area and Moriches Inlet. Aerial video and photos were obtained Saturday, November 3rd, 5 days after the storm’s passage. A short description and photos of the breaches is available here while youtube videos are listed to the right.
As a follow-up to the November 3rd aerial survey and after the nor’easter that occurred on November 7 and 8, a second aerial overflight of the Old Inlet area was carried out on November 11, 2012. Photos and a discussion of the results of that flight are available here. In addition, we recovered an oceanographic sensor from the Bellport marina on November 10, 2012 which had recorded the sea level, temperature and salinity variations caused by the hurricane and subsequent nor-easter. Click on the thumbnail to the right to see the time series plots of the data while a discussion of the data is given here. The youtube video of the November 11th flight is below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MyMhwf8ihA
Another weekly aerial survey of the inlet was carried out on Sunday November 18th which showed that the sand island connecting Pelican Island to Fire Island had been cut by a new channel to the west. A series of photos showing the evolution of the inlet is given here.
On Saturday December 1, 2012 there was a meeting at Bellport’s community center to discuss the breach in the Old Inlet area. A power point presentation given at that meeting shows how the dynamics of the Great South Bay and the ocean resulted in the formation of the breach and how the breach has affected the tides, wind driven storm surge and the salinity of the eastern end of the Bay.
A follow-up meeting on the developments of the breach, now referred to as New Inlet, took place on March 23, 2013 at the Bellport Middle School. Charles Flagg gave a power point presentation to the meeting attended by about 500 people to hear position reports from the FINS and the NYDEC, and presentations by Charles Flagg, Kevin McAlaster and Joe Gagliano.
Presentations by Charles Flagg, Christopher Gobler, Chris Soler, Jim Gilmore, Tony Graves and Joe Gagliano took place at the Bellport Middle School on December 21, 2013 to outline the current status of the New Inlet and initiation of the NPS’s Environmental Impact Statement project. Flagg’s power point presentation is available here.
A series of reports on the breach development are listed below.
December 14, 2012 report on the new inlet through November is available here.
On January 5, 2013 another aerial over flight took place and a photo summary of the evolving breach at Old Inlet to the present is available here.
January 14, 2013 report on the inlet that goes through December is available here.
The January 30th report on the status of the inlet is available here.
The February 27th report on the bay and inlet with new bathymetry of the inlet is here.
The March 15th report on the inlet and the impact of east-coast wide water level fluctuations is here.
The June 28th report on the inlet’s evolution. the cross-sectional area and changes in the Bay-wide salinity is here.
The 10th report on the inlet’s condition, issued Dec 12, 2013 is here.
The 11th report on the inlet’s condition, issued Oct 20, 2014 is here.
The 12th report on the inlet’s condition, issued Jan 9, 2015 is here.
The 14th report on the inlet’s condition, issued Aug 7, 2015 is here.
The 15th report on the inlet’s condition, issued March 16, 2016 is here.
The 16th report on the inlet’s condition, issued Sept 14, 2016 is here.
The 17th report on the inlet/breach’s condition, issued July 12, 2017 is here.
The 18th report on the inlet/breach’s condition, issued Oct 28, 2017 is here.
The 19th report on the inlet/breach’s condition, issued Oct 29, 2018 is here.
The 20th report on the inlet/breach’s condition, issued Feb 15, 2019 is here
The 21th report on the inlet/breach’s condition, issued Sep 24, 2019 is here.
The 22th report on the inlet/breach’s condition, issued Feb 15, 2020 is here.
The 23th report on the inlet/breach’s condition, issued Jan 14, 2021 is here.
Peer reviewed publication by Hinrichs et al (2018) on the impact of the breach on Great South Bay
The youtube video of the November 11th flight is below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MyMhwf8ihA
Mark Lang has assembled all the geo-referenced photo mosaics into a kml file that can be viewed using Google Earth. By clicking between images and using the fade in-out button you can clearly see how the inlet is changing with time. An offline version of the KML file is available as KMZ.
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Old Inlet Breach Flyovers 03-26 and 04-25 2018
Above: Old Inlet Breach on March 26, 2018 Dr. Charles Flagg took flights over the Breach at Old Inlet on Fire Island on March 26 and April 25, 2018. The flyover mosaics are available below. Dr. Flagg noted that the April 25th flight was "near high tide and the sun...
Old Inlet Breach Flyover 2018-02-27
Dr. Charles Flagg took another flight over the Breach at Old Inlet on Fire Island on February 27, 2018. The flyover mosaic is available below. Dr. Flagg provided the following report: This is a quick update on the status of the breach prior to the nor’easter that’s...
Old Inlet Breach Flyover 2018-01-27
Dr. Charles Flagg took another flight over the Breach at Old Inlet on Fire Island on January 27, 2018. The flyover mosaic is available below. In case you missed it, Dr. Charles Flagg's research on the breach was featured on an episode of PBS's SciTech Mark Lang has...
Old Inlet Breach Flyover 2017-11-28
Dr. Charles Flagg took another flight over the Breach at Old Inlet on Fire Island on November 28, 2017. The flyover mosaic is available below. Mark Lang has assembled all the geo-referenced photo mosaics into a kml file that can be viewed using Google Earth. By...
Old Inlet Breach Flyover 2017-10-20
Dr. Charles Flagg took another flight over the Breach at Old Inlet on Fire Island on October 20, 2017. The flyover mosaic is available below. Dr. Flagg noted that there are major changes to the inlet: The arrival of the remnant of Hurricane Jose and the subsequent...
Old Inlet Breach Flyover 2017-09-24
Dr. Charles Flagg took another flight over the Breach at Old Inlet on Fire Island on September 24, 2017. The flyover mosaic is available below. Dr. Flagg provided the following report: I completed another over flight today to see what Jose's waves had done. The...
Old Inlet Breach Flyover 2017-09-08
Dr. Charles Flagg took another flight over the Breach at Old Inlet on Fire Island on September 8, 2017. The flyover mosaic is available below. Mark Lang has assembled all the geo-referenced photo mosaics into a kml file that can be viewed using Google Earth. By...
Old Inlet Breach Flyover 2017-08-14
Dr. Charles Flagg took another flight over the Breach at Old Inlet on Fire Island on August 14, 2017. The flyover mosaic is available below. Mark Lang has assembled all the geo-referenced photo mosaics into a kml file that can be viewed using Google Earth. By...
Old Inlet Breach Flyover 2017-07-16
Dr. Charles Flagg took another flight over the Breach at Old Inlet on Fire Island on July 16, 2017. The flyover mosaic is available below. Dr. Flagg provided the following report: A breach flight yesterday revealed some interesting changes from just a month...
Old Inlet Breach Flyover 2017-06-11
Dr. Charles Flagg took another flight over the Breach at Old Inlet on Fire Island on June 11, 2017. The flyover mosaic is available below. Dr. Flagg's latest report on the status of the breach is now online. He notes, among other details, that "there has been a lot...
Old Inlet Breach Flyover 2017-05-10
Dr. Charles Flagg took another flight over the Breach at Old Inlet on Fire Island on May 10, 2017. The flyover mosaic is available below. Mark Lang has assembled all the geo-referenced photo mosaics into a kml file that can be viewed using Google Earth. By clicking...
Old Inlet Breach Flyover 2017-04-09
Dr. Charles Flagg took another flight over the Breach at Old Inlet on Fire Island on April 9, 2017. The flyover mosaic is available below. Dr. Flagg provided the following report: Sunday April 9th was a clear and low wind day and perfect for another aerial photo run...
Old Inlet Breach Flyover 2017-03-13
Dr. Charles Flagg took another flight over the Breach at Old Inlet on Fire Island on June 30, 2016. The flyover mosaic is available below. Dr. Flagg provided the following report: Today was the first time in a couple of weeks that we've had flyable weather so I...
Old Inlet Breach Flyover 2017-02-04
Dr. Charles Flagg took another flight over the Breach at Old Inlet on Fire Island on February 4, 2017. The flyover mosaic is available below. Dr. Flagg provided the following report: Saturday was a nice day and the plane had been repaired so I carried out another...
Old Inlet Breach 2017-01-15
Dr. Charles Flagg took another flight over the Breach at Old Inlet on Fire Island on June 30, 2016. The flyover mosaic is available below. Dr. Flagg provided the following report: We carried out a photo overflight of the breach area Sunday, January 15th, around...
Old Inlet Breach Flyover 2016-12-08
Dr. Charles Flagg took another flight over the Breach at Old Inlet on Fire Island on December 8, 2016. The flyover mosaic is available below. Dr. Flagg provided the following report: I flew over the breach again today, December 8th, and there are some major...
Old Inlet Breach Flyover 2016-10-06
Dr. Charles Flagg took another flight over the Breach at Old Inlet on Fire Island on October 6, 2016. The flyover mosaic is available below. Dr. Flagg provided the following report regarding the status of the breach: As mentioned in earlier notes, the western side...
Old Inlet Breach Flyover 2016-09-08
Dr. Charles Flagg took another flight over the Breach at Old Inlet on Fire Island on September 8, 2016. The flyover mosaic is available below. Dr. Charles Flagg released the following report on the status of the breach as we approach the four-year anniversary of...
Old Inlet Breach Flyover 2016-08-05
Dr. Charles Flagg took another flight over the Breach at Old Inlet on Fire Island on August 5, 2016. The flyover mosaic is available below. Mark Lang has assembled all the geo-referenced photo mosaics into a kml file that can be viewed using Google Earth. By...
Old Inlet Breach Flyover 2016-06-30
Dr. Charles Flagg took another flight over the Breach at Old Inlet on Fire Island on June 30, 2016. The flyover mosaic is available below. Mark Lang has assembled all the geo-referenced photo mosaics into a kml file that can be viewed using Google Earth. By clicking...
Old Inlet Breach Flyover 2016-06-01
Dr. Charles Flagg took another flight over the Breach at Old Inlet on Fire Island on June 1, 2016. The flyover mosaic is available below. Dr. Flagg provided the following report: Another set of aerial photos and a video mosaic were taken today around 9:30 AM during...
Old Inlet Breach Flyover 2016-05-11
Dr. Charles Flagg took another flight over the Breach at Old Inlet on Fire Island on May 11, 2016. The flyover mosaic is available below. Dr. Flagg provided the following report: The flight took place just after low tide in the bay, ~8:40AM EDT May 11th, so many of...
Old Inlet Breach Flyover 2016-04-13
Dr. Charles Flagg took another flight over the Breach at Old Inlet on Fire Island on April 13, 2016. The flyover mosaic is available below. Dr. Flagg provided the following comments Low tide at Bellport was at 11:18 AM while the flight was around noon so many of the...
Old Inlet Flyover 2016-03-08
Dr. Charles Flagg, with pilot Rich Giannotti, took another flight over the Breach at Old Inlet on Fire Island on March 8, 2016. Dr. Flagg provided the following report: The flight took place near high tide but the water was clearer than during the last couple of...
Old Inlet Breach Flyover 2016-01-31
January 6, 2016 Flight January 31, 2016 Flight Dr. Charles Flagg took flights over the Breach at Old Inlet on Fire Island on January 6, 2016 and January 31, 2016. Due to technical issues with the capture, a full mosaic image from the January 6th flight is not...