Tropical Storm — Coastal Duval, Florida

2022-09-28 to 2022-09-30 · Coastal Duval, Florida

Event narrative

Strong tropical storm force winds and storm surge impacted Duval county. On Wednesday 9/28 at 1:43 pm, a mesonet station at Huguenot Park measured a sustained speed of 41 mph with a wind gust to 51 mph. By 5:13 pm, the same station measured a peak wind gust of 61 mph. At 7:15 pm, local broadcast media reported a large tree was blown down on a power line at the Jacksonville Beach Golf Course. At 7:41 pm, the Mayport AWOS station measured sustained NE winds of 41 mph with a gust to 55 mph. By 7:58 pm, the Huguenot Park mesonet site measured sustained winds of 44 mph with a gust to 56 mph. By 10:33 pm, the same station measured a wind gust of 62 mph from the NE. At 10:40 pm, a mesonet station about 1 mile ENE of Fort Caroline measured a wind gust of 64 mph from the NE.

On Thursday 9/29, the Huguenot Park mesonet site measured a wind gust of 65 mph from the NNE at 1:08 am. At 4:45 am, the mesonet station near Fort Caroline measured a wind gust of 65 mph from the NNE. At 5:22 am, the Mayport AWOS measured a wind gust of 58 mph from the NE. At 5:30 am, a mesonet station 1 mile NNE of Jacksonville Beach measured a peak wind gust of 58 mph from the N. At 5:35 am, local broadcast media relayed a report that at retail sign was blown down near the intersection of Baymeadows Road and Old Kings Road South near Mandarin. Around the time of the reported damage, the Naval Air Station Jacksonville AWOS station KNIP on the St. Johns River measured a wind gust of 52 mph at 5:47 am. At 7:10 am, the mesonet station 1 mile ENE of Fort Caroline measured sustained tropical storm force winds of 41 mph with a gust to 62 mph. At 7:50 am, a mesonet site 1 mile NNE of Jacksonville Beach measured a sustained wind of 50 mph with a gust to 53 mph. At 8:53 am, the mesonet site 1 mile ENE of Jacksonville Beach measured a sustained winds of 50 mph with a gust to 65 mph. At 8:28 am, the mesonet site a Huguenot Park measured sustained winds of 56 mph with a gust to 68 mph. At 8:30 am, a mesonet station 1 mile NNE of Jacksonville Beach had a wind gust to 56 mph. At 8:41 am, the Mayport AWOS had a sustained wind of 45 mph with a gust to 58 mph. At 9:20 am, the mesonet site about 1 mile NNE of Jacksonville Beach had a gust to 62 mph. At 9:55 am, the same station measured a peak wind gust of 67 mph. At 11:43 am, the Huguenot Park mesonet station measured a sustained wind of strong tropical storm force at 58 mph with a gust to 70 mph. At 12:13 pm, the same station measured a wind gust of 72 mph. At 12:40 pm, the Jacksonville Fire Rescue Department Station 40 about 2 miles WNW of Mayport measured a wind gust of 54 mph. At 12:48 mph, the Craig Airport ASOS KCRG measured a wind of 60 mph. At 1:10 pm, a mesonet station 1 mile NNE of Jacksonville Beach measured a wind gust of 60 mph. At 1:46 pm, downed trees were blown down on Naval Air Station Jacksonville property due to strong tropical storm force winds. Some trees fell onto residential structures and two families were displaced. At 2:52 pm, the AWOS at Mayport measured wind gust of 62 mph. Widespread power outages occurred across the county. During the peak of the storm, the Jacksonville Electric Authority reported about 20k customers without power.

There was about 3 to 4 feet of storm surge inundation along the Duval County Atlantic coast with 2 to 3 feet of inundation along the St. Johns River Basin. The peak surge at Mayport was 2.49 ft MHHW datum around 12:24 pm on Thursday, 9/29. Moderate flooding begins at 2.3 ft MHHW and major flooding begins at 3.3 ft MHHW at this location. Storm surge inundation was reported along the Intracoastsal Waterway near Hammocks of Oak Landing neighborhood around 2:56 pm on Thursday 9/29. The water level was comparable to Hurricane Irma storm surge at the time, possibly a few inches higher. At 3:18 am on Friday 9/30, the St. Johns River gauge at the Main Street Bridge in downtown Jacksonville measured a peak storm surge inundation of 2.48 ft MHHW datum. Moderate flooding begins at 2 ft MHHW at this location. At 4 am, the Cedar River tide gauge peaked at 2.64 ft MHHW datum. Moderate flooding begins at 2 ft MHHW at this location. At 4 am, the Pottsburg Creek tide gauge at Beach Blvd (U.S. Highway 90) peaked at 2.50 ft MHHW datum. Moderate tidal flooding begins at 2.2 ft MHHW at this location. At 2:26 pm, the Main Street tide gauge measured it's peak storm surge value with Ian of 2.71 ft MHHW. At 4:30 pm, tidal flooding flooded some businesses in San Marco along Lasalle Street and San Marco Blvd was closed due to the flooding. At 5 pm, there was minor tidal flooding in Riverside near Memorial Park. In Atlantic Beach, at least one beach walker at 6th street was lost.

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 1051053. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.