Photos: Sand Buries Car in Virginia Beach!

Here are the aforementioned "sand buries car" pictures. I spoke to the photographer and he said its definitely sand, caused by steady winds, and the additional pictures confirm it (from the big picture below, I couldn't tell if it was just foam).

LATEST 5 PHOTOS FROM aes92879 ON OUR PHOTO GALLERY:

I think probably what happened was not as much the wind speed, but the consistent direction (see graph below). Looking at data from the Naval Air Station (there are no amateur stations on the coast there), the wind direction was remarkably similar for the past 48 hours. It didn't rain much in Virginia Beach after 11 PM last night, which could have made for a long night of drifting sand, though it rained considerably before and I'm surprised there was that much sand ready to move. I am trying to determine how many hours it took this to happen -- since the sand looks like it's been rained on, it probably happened before 2:45 am when a brief storm moved over the area, so maybe I'm wrong that it was an all-night event.

This may not be an example of the power of the unnamed storm that hit the Carolinas yesterday, but it certainly is an example of its bizarre nature.