Tropical Storm — Eastern Clay, Florida

2022-09-28 to 2022-09-30 · Eastern Clay, Florida

Event narrative

St. Johns river flooding and wind damage from tropical storm force winds impacted Clay County. At 5:06 pm on Thursday 9/29, the public reported river flooding along the St. Johns River between Green Cove Springs and Racy Point. A video showcased the river flooding nearing residential property and was compared to river flooding at that location similar to Hurricane Matthew in 2016. On Friday 9/30, the Buckman Bridge tide gage on the St. Johns River peak at 3.04 ft MHHW datum. Major flooding begins above 3 ft MHHW at this location.

Wider weather episode

Hurricane Ian made landfall as a powerful Category 4 Hurricane on the SW Florida peninsula coast near Punta Gorda on Wednesday, September 28th. The center tracked NE across south-central FL, north of Lake Okeechobee through Wednesday Night and then moved offshore of the central FL Atlantic coast Thursday Morning, September 29th, just near Cape Canaveral as a Tropical Storm. Ian regained Category 1 Hurricane Strength offshore of the northeast Florida Atlantic coast as it tracked NNE into Thursday Night and Friday morning as it made landfall along the South Carolina Atlantic coast. Locally, a strong nor'easter developed through the day Wednesday, September 28th, as a front lifted northward up the FL peninsula ahead of Ian. Tropical Storm force winds and bands of rainfall started to impact northeast Florida through the day Wednesday, the peak in local winds through the day Thursday as Ian's center tracked northward and offshore of the local Atlantic coast. Water levels increased within the St. Johns River basin Wednesday due to the strong nor'easter and annually high spring tides already created water level departures of 0.5 to 1 ft MHHW datum prior to the nor'easter further 'charging' the St. Johns River basin. The peak storm surge along the local Atlantic coast occurred Thursday, then the peak surge pressed into the St. Johns River basin Thursday night into Friday morning. Major to moderate tidal flooding continued into the weekend especially for Putnam, St. Johns and Flagler counties where trapped tides and northerly flow caused extended tidal flooding. Record setting rainfall occurred across the headwaters of the St. Johns River across east-central Florida, and water levels increased the week after Ian passed as the St. Johns River drains south to north, which was also leading up to the peak Spring tides between Oct 8th through Oct 11th.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1051051. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.