ShoreSense is SeaglassHunting.com’s 0–100 sea glass hunting score. It combines recent marine and tidal conditions with practical hunting weather to estimate how promising conditions may be at individual UK beaches.
It is designed to answer a simple question:
Is this a good time to go sea glass hunting at this beach?
A high ShoreSense Score does not guarantee you will find sea glass. No forecast can know exactly what is buried in a beach, what has recently been moved, or what another hunter collected yesterday.
What ShoreSense can do is bring together the conditions that may influence a hunt and turn them into one easy-to-understand score.
ShoreSense at a glance
| ShoreSense Score | Rating |
|---|---|
| 90–100 | Perfect |
| 75–89 | Excellent |
| 60–74 | Good |
| 45–59 | Fair |
| Below 45 | Limited |
Every monitored beach is scored individually.
That matters because the same weather can affect two nearby beaches very differently. A swell travelling directly towards one beach may travel across or away from another, while tidal range, beach orientation and exposure can also vary.
ShoreSense tries to account for those differences rather than issuing one generic forecast for an entire stretch of coastline.
Why we created ShoreSense
Ask sea glass hunters when to go, and you will hear plenty of familiar advice:
Go after a storm.
Wait for low tide.
Look after rough seas.
There is useful experience behind much of that advice, but real coastal conditions are more complicated.
A beach might have experienced strong wave activity yesterday but calmer conditions today.
The swell might be large but travelling in the wrong direction.
Low tide might occur in darkness.
A large tidal range could expose much more beach than usual.
Or the weather might be so unpleasant that an otherwise promising hunt simply isn’t practical.
ShoreSense brings those different signals together.
The aim is not to replace experience.
It gives hunters better context for deciding when and where to go.
How ShoreSense is calculated
The final ShoreSense Score combines two separate assessments:
Hunting Potential – 80%
How favourable the marine and tidal conditions appear for sea glass hunting.
Comfort – 20%
How practical and pleasant the conditions are likely to be for someone actually walking the beach.
The overall score is therefore primarily driven by hunting conditions.
A beautiful sunny day cannot turn poor sea conditions into a great hunting forecast.
But equally, extremely wet, windy, cold or uncomfortable weather can reduce the usefulness of an otherwise promising opportunity.
Hunting Potential
Hunting Potential is calculated from five main components.
| Component | Weight |
|---|---|
| Glass Delivery | 45% |
| Tide Timing | 25% |
| Moon | 15% |
| Tide Range | 10% |
| Onshore Persistence | 5% |
These weights describe the current ShoreSense v1 model.
The detailed calculation behind each component is proprietary to SeaglassHunting.com, but the principles behind the model are explained below.
1. Glass Delivery – 45%
Glass Delivery is the largest part of Hunting Potential.
It looks at the recent marine energy acting on a beach and asks whether conditions may have been capable of disturbing, moving or exposing beach material.
Rather than looking only at the sea today, ShoreSense considers recent conditions over several days.
More recent marine activity carries greater influence than older activity.
The model considers factors including:
- wave and swell height
- swell period
- swell direction
- recent marine energy
- the orientation of the beach
- whether energy is arriving onshore, cross-shore or offshore
Why swell direction matters
A large swell is not automatically useful.
If most of its energy is travelling parallel to or away from the beach, its effect can be very different from a smaller swell arriving directly onshore.
ShoreSense therefore compares marine direction with each beach’s orientation.
This is one reason two beaches close together can receive very different scores on the same day.
Why recent conditions matter
Sea glass hunting may be influenced by what happened before you arrive, not simply by the conditions at that moment.
ShoreSense gives recent marine activity a declining influence over time rather than resetting conditions every day.
This allows the model to recognise recent energetic periods that may still be relevant to the current beach.
2. Settling after stronger conditions
The roughest sea does not automatically produce the highest score.
One of the ideas ShoreSense is designed to investigate is whether a useful hunting window can open after stronger marine conditions begin to ease.
Energetic seas may disturb beach material, while calmer conditions afterwards may make newly exposed areas easier and safer to search.
ShoreSense therefore adjusts its Glass Delivery assessment depending on whether conditions are:
- easing from a recent stronger period
- relatively steady
- continuing to become substantially rougher
Easing conditions can receive a favourable adjustment, while still-building rough conditions can be moderated.
This is an important distinction.
ShoreSense is not simply a “bigger waves = better” score.
It attempts to recognise the relationship between recent energy and what is happening at the beach now.
This settling behaviour is a hypothesis within ShoreSense v1 rather than a scientifically proven predictor of sea glass finds. Our long-term dataset will allow us to test whether it deserves its place in future versions of the model.
3. Tide Timing – 25%
Tides affect how much of the beach can be searched and when underwater areas become accessible.
ShoreSense therefore considers both tide timing and daylight.
Useful low-tide periods are prioritised when they occur during daylight, while other usable tidal windows may be suggested where a daylight low tide is unavailable.
This avoids a fairly obvious problem with advice such as:
“Just go at low tide.”
A perfect low tide at 3 am isn’t terribly useful to most hunters.
The best tidal window also varies from beach to beach.
A broad intertidal beach behaves differently from a steep shingle shoreline, which is why tide timing is only one part of the overall conditions assessment.
4. Moon – 15%
ShoreSense includes the lunar cycle as a contextual factor associated with the spring–neap tidal cycle.
New and full moons occur around spring tides, while quarter moons occur around neap tides.
However, ShoreSense does not assume that a particular Moon phase directly causes better sea glass hunting.
Actual tidal range is measured separately.
This distinction is important because one of the questions we eventually want to investigate is whether the lunar component contributes useful information once real tidal conditions are already taken into account.
If the data eventually suggests it does not, future versions of ShoreSense can change.
5. Tide Range – 10%
Not every tide rises and falls through the same distance.
Larger tidal ranges can expose parts of a beach that remain underwater during smaller tidal cycles.
ShoreSense therefore treats tidal range separately from tide timing.
This may be particularly useful on beaches with:
- broad intertidal areas
- shingle banks
- rock shelves
- channels
- areas exposed only on larger tides
A large tidal range does not guarantee better sea glass hunting.
It simply changes how much of the beach may become available to search.
6. Onshore Persistence – 5%
One short burst of onshore weather may have less influence than coastal conditions that have persisted.
ShoreSense therefore looks at how much recent wind energy has been acting from the sea towards the beach.
This is deliberately a smaller part of the score.
It provides context around the persistence of coastal conditions rather than overpowering the more important marine and tidal signals.
Comfort – 20% of the ShoreSense Score
Finding sea glass is only useful if conditions are practical enough to actually hunt.
ShoreSense therefore calculates a separate Comfort assessment using weather conditions including:
- rainfall
- wind
- apparent temperature
- cold conditions
- very warm beach weather
- overnight frost
Comfortable temperatures can receive a small positive adjustment, while wet, windy, very cold or very hot conditions can reduce the score.
Very warm weather can also mean busier beaches, which may make hunting less productive or enjoyable.
Open-Meteo apparent temperature is used to help represent how conditions are likely to feel rather than relying only on the measured air temperature.
The ShoreSense interface may also provide additional shore-chill information where useful.
How ShoreSense chooses the Best Window
The score tells you how promising the day looks.
The Best Window tries to tell you when to go.
ShoreSense prioritises useful daylight tidal windows, with preference given to periods around low tide where possible.
If a suitable daylight low-tide opportunity is unavailable, the model looks for other potentially useful tide windows.
Where the best available tidal event falls outside daylight, that limitation is clearly flagged.
The Best Window is intended as a planning aid, not a promise that sea glass will appear during those exact minutes.
Why beach characteristics matter
Sea conditions are only part of the story.
Two beaches under similar forecasts may respond very differently because of differences in:
- orientation
- exposure
- sediment
- geology
- coastal structures
- historic industry or settlement
- local currents
- the amount of glass already present
That is why ShoreSense is calculated at individual beach level.
It should also be used alongside our beach guides rather than as a replacement for them.
A beach needs glass in the first place.
An amazing ShoreSense Score cannot magically turn a beach with little historical glass into Seaham.
Even algorithms haven’t cracked that one yet.
What does a high ShoreSense Score mean?
A high score means:
The combination of conditions measured by ShoreSense currently looks favourable for hunting at that beach.
It does not mean:
- sea glass is guaranteed
- the beach has definitely been replenished
- rare colours will be present
- every part of the beach will be productive
- conditions are safe
There are things ShoreSense cannot know.
These include:
- exactly how much glass exists beneath the beach
- what has recently been collected
- small-scale erosion and deposition
- overnight changes in shingle or sand
- beach replenishment or coastal works
- exactly where individual pieces have moved
- luck
ShoreSense is a conditions indicator, not a treasure map.
Is ShoreSense scientifically validated?
No.
ShoreSense is an experimental sea glass hunting conditions model developed by SeaglassHunting.com.
Coastal sediment movement is complex, and there is no scientifically validated formula that can tell an individual hunter whether they will find sea glass on a particular beach on a particular day.
ShoreSense should therefore be treated as a decision-support tool, not a scientific prediction of finds.
We think being transparent about that matters.
It also gives us something interesting to work towards.
Building a long-term sea glass conditions dataset
From August 2026, SeaglassHunting.com began building a daily historical record of ShoreSense conditions across monitored UK beaches.
The dataset records both the resulting ShoreSense Score and the environmental information used by the model.
This means we can eventually look beyond individual forecasts and study patterns across thousands of beach-days.
It also means that if ShoreSense evolves, historical environmental observations can potentially be analysed again using later versions of the model.
What we hope to learn
Sea glass hunting contains a lot of knowledge built from decades of individual experience.
ShoreSense gives us an opportunity to investigate some of that experience systematically.
As the dataset grows, we hope to explore questions such as:
- Do energetic seas actually correspond with stronger subsequent hunting conditions?
- Is there a consistent post-storm settling window?
- How long does the effect of recent marine energy appear to last?
- How important is swell direction?
- Does swell period add useful information beyond wave height?
- Are larger tidal ranges consistently associated with better opportunities?
- Does the lunar component improve the model once actual tidal range is known?
- Do different UK coastlines respond differently to similar conditions?
- Which combinations of conditions occur most often when hunters actually find sea glass?
Some of these questions will require months or years of data.
That is intentional.
ShoreSense is being developed as a long-term project rather than a fixed formula that we assume is correct forever.
Adding real hunter outcomes
Weather data can tell us what happened at the coast.
It cannot tell us what somebody actually found.
That’s why hunter feedback is an important future part of ShoreSense.
Where sufficient feedback exists, we want to compare:
Environmental conditions → ShoreSense prediction → real hunter outcome
That should help us understand which parts of the model are useful and which deserve to change.
The aim isn’t to make ShoreSense increasingly complicated.
It’s to make it better supported by evidence.
ShoreSense model versions
ShoreSense will evolve as the dataset grows.
Significant methodology changes will receive a new model version so historical results can always be understood in the context of the calculation that produced them.
Current methodology
ShoreSense v1
Future versions may adjust:
- component weights
- scoring thresholds
- treatment of recent marine conditions
- individual environmental factors
- comfort calculations
Changes will be made when there is a good reason to make them, particularly as historical data and hunter feedback provide more evidence.
Where ShoreSense gets its data
ShoreSense currently uses marine and weather information supplied by Open-Meteo together with UK tidal predictions from the UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO).
Open-Meteo provides marine and weather variables used within ShoreSense, including information about waves, swell, wind, rainfall and temperature.
UKHO provides tidal prediction data used by the model.
These services provide environmental information.
They do not calculate ShoreSense.
The ShoreSense methodology, beach-level calculations, weighting and final score are created by SeaglassHunting.com.
Neither Open-Meteo nor UKHO produces, validates or endorses the ShoreSense Score.
Finding the best sea glass beach today
ShoreSense is calculated across the beaches monitored by SeaglassHunting.com.
That allows hunters to compare current conditions between locations rather than trying to interpret multiple tide, swell, wind and weather forecasts individually.
Use the ShoreSense leaderboard to see which UK sea glass beaches currently have the strongest scores.
See the current ShoreSense leaderboard
From there, open the individual beach guide for local information about:
- likely finds
- beach characteristics
- access
- colours recorded
- hunting tips
- current conditions
ShoreSense tells you about the conditions.
The beach guide tells you about the place.
Using ShoreSense safely
Never use ShoreSense as an indication that the sea or a beach is safe.
Some of the conditions capable of moving coastal material are also capable of producing dangerous waves, unstable cliffs and difficult beach access.
Before visiting:
- check official weather warnings
- check current tide information
- check local access conditions
- be aware of cliffs and unstable ground
- stay clear of dangerous water
- follow local coastal safety advice
Never enter hazardous water because a ShoreSense Score is high.
No piece of sea glass is worth taking a risk for.
About ShoreSense
ShoreSense was created by SeaglassHunting.com as part of our project to build a more useful, evidence-led resource for UK sea glass hunters.
Alongside ShoreSense, we maintain a growing database of UK sea glass beaches, colour and identification resources, hunting guides and community find information.
Our longer-term aim is to bring together:
coastal data + local beach knowledge + real hunter experience
to better understand when, where and under what conditions sea glass is found around Britain’s coastline.
ShoreSense is the conditions layer of that project.
Common questions about ShoreSense and sea glass conditions
What is ShoreSense?
ShoreSense is SeaglassHunting.com’s 0–100 sea glass hunting score. It combines Hunting Potential based on marine and tidal conditions with a separate Comfort assessment to estimate how favourable conditions may be at individual UK beaches.
What is the best tide for sea glass hunting?
Lower and falling tides often expose more searchable beach, but there is no single tidal state that is best everywhere. Beach shape, tidal range, daylight and recent marine conditions all matter. ShoreSense therefore treats tide timing as one part of the wider conditions rather than assuming low tide automatically means good hunting.
Is it better to hunt sea glass after a storm?
Many sea glass hunters favour the period after stronger seas because energetic conditions may disturb and redistribute beach material. ShoreSense incorporates recent marine energy and considers whether conditions are beginning to settle. This relationship has not yet been scientifically validated specifically for sea glass finds and is one of the things our long-term dataset is intended to investigate.
How long after rough seas should I hunt for sea glass?
There is no proven universal answer. ShoreSense gives greater importance to more recent marine activity while also considering whether conditions are easing, steady or continuing to build.
Does swell direction matter?
Potentially, yes. Swell travelling towards a beach interacts with the coastline differently from swell moving parallel to or away from it. ShoreSense therefore assesses marine energy in relation to the orientation of each individual beach.
Does the Moon affect sea glass hunting?
The Moon influences the spring–neap tidal cycle, but ShoreSense does not assume that a particular Moon phase directly causes better sea glass hunting. The lunar cycle is included as a contextual component alongside separately measured tide timing and tidal range. Historical data will help us evaluate how useful that component actually is.
Does weather affect the ShoreSense Score?
Yes. Hunting Potential accounts for most of the final score, but ShoreSense also includes a separate Comfort assessment based on practical hunting weather such as rain, wind and apparent temperature.
Does a high ShoreSense Score guarantee sea glass?
No. ShoreSense measures conditions. It cannot know exactly how much glass is present, what has recently been collected or precisely how material has moved within the beach.
Who created ShoreSense?
ShoreSense was created by SeaglassHunting.com.
Where can I see today’s ShoreSense Scores?
Visit the ShoreSense leaderboard to compare current hunting conditions across monitored UK sea glass beaches.
Current methodology: ShoreSense v1
Historical data collection began: August 2026
Last reviewed: August 2026
ShoreSense is an evolving experimental model. Its methodology may be updated as SeaglassHunting.com collects more historical environmental data and real-world hunter feedback.