Tropical Storm — Coastal Camden, Georgia

2022-09-29 to 2022-09-30 · Coastal Camden, Georgia

Event narrative

The county experienced tropical storm force winds and storm surge inundation at the coast and into the St. Mary's River. At 1:48 pm on 9/29, the emergency manager reported storm surge inundation into the Submarine Museum in St. Mary's River. Peak winds range from gusts of 35 mph at the Stafford RAWs station on Cumberland Island before the sensor failed. A GDOT sensor near Interstate 95 and the St. Mary's River had a peak wind gust of 47 mph on 9/29. Peak winds of tropical storm force occurred at Kings Bay between 1 pm and 2 pm on Thursday, 9/29. The peak sustained wind measured during this time was 40 mph at 1:15 pm with a gust to 59 mph.

In St. Mary's, the bridge on North River Causeway (off of Point Peter Road) was closed. On Thursday Sep 29 at 2:10 PM EDT.

The peak storm surge inundation measured at the Cumberland Island Sea Camp dock was 2.81 ft MHHW on Sept. 29th at 12:45 pm.

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 1053712. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.