CHARLESTON, S.C. - South Carolina's beaches, battered by five tropical systems this year, are in their worst shape in years heading into the winter storm season, an oceanographer warned Monday.

"We're as bad as we have been at any time since Hurricane Hugo," said Bill Eiser an oceanographer with the state's Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management.

That's not good news considering forecasters now predict a colder and stormier winter season than normal in the Southeast.

Hugo smashed ashore with 135 mph winds in 1989. This summer, for the first time since 1893, the centers of four tropical systems crossed into South Carolina in the same year.

The remnants of Hurricane Jeanne tracked through last month while Hurricane Charley and Tropical Storm Gaston made landfall within miles of each other in Charleston County in August. The remnants of Bonnie tracked through after landfall on the Gulf of Mexico.

The fringes of Hurricanes Frances and Ivan also brought heavy rain, tornadoes and damage, although the center of those storms did not pass through the state.

Beaches suffered erosion from Jeanne, Gaston, Charley and Frances as well as Alex, which passed off the state's coast early in the season, Eiser said.

The storms caused Hunting Island State Park to lose about 35 feet of sand and, at Folly Beach, 12 feet of sand disappeared from a trail, leaving a 5-foot ledge into the sea.

The dune at the north end of Folly has eroded back about 40 feet, Eiser said.

"Edisto Beach saw a good bit of erosion form these storms and they are particularly vulnerable now," he said.

Beaches are vital to South Carolina's $15 billion tourism industry, the largest in the state.

Along the Grand Strand, there was spotty erosion on Pawleys Island, but the Myrtle Beach area fared well largely because a renourishment project in the late 1990s helped protect the beaches, Eiser said.

The damage could have been worse, but Charley came ashore at low tide.

The December through February outlook released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration last week calls for a wetter and colder winter than usual.

Forecasters predict a weak to moderate El Nino in the Pacific that will shift the jet stream.

"In particular, NOAA anticipates enhanced storminess near the Aleutian Islands and in the Southeast U.S., and warmer, drier conditions over western North America," said Jim Laver, director of the agency's Climate Prediction Center.

In winter, nor'easters sometimes form off the Carolina coast.

"The wind is blowing out of the northeast and that's the direction that causes the most erosion," Eiser said. "With hurricanes, you may get strong winds but depending on the track, you may not get winds out of the northeast."

In recent years, winter systems have caused more erosion because the state has escaped damage from most tropical systems, Eiser said.

"It's also true that we haven't had a real bad northeast storm since the New Year's Day storm of 1987," he said. "That was by far the most devastating nor'easter we have had in the past 17 years."

That storm chewed up beaches and damaged expensive homes and was the catalyst for passing the state's Beachfront Management Act.