Tropical Storm — Eastern Putnum, Florida

2022-11-09 to 2022-11-11 · Eastern Putnum, Florida

Event narrative

Major river flooding occurred along the St. Johns River basin with numerous homes and structure flooded in Stephens Point and Welaka. Gusty tropical storm force winds across the county caused sporadic tree damage.

On Wednesday Nov 9th around 6 pm, moderate tidal flooding was reported with water depth 2.54 ft above ground level MHHW datum at the Dunns Creek gauge near Satsuma. The Putnam County EM relayed images of multiple streets and yards flooded along Dunns Creek. Around the same time, the EM shared photos of street flooding along roads in Welaka near the St. Johns River with water depth estimated around 1-2 ft inundation.

On Thursday Nov 10th at 7:20 am, the Putnam EM reported storm surge flooding in the Sportsman's Harbor area in Welaka/Stephen's Point. Water was halfway up the fire hydrants and some mailboxes with roads non-drivable due to flooding. Around 9:07 am, a mesonet station about 5 miles SE of Crescent City measured a wind gust of 56 mph. By 10 am, the Putnam EM reported that the Mayor of Welaka reported storm surge flooding that exceeded Ian levels. The Dunns Creek tide gauge had a morning crest of 3.1 ft MHHW datum (Major Flooding begins at 3.0 ft MHHW at this location). At 10:35 am, the Larkin Airport K28J measured a wind gust of 51 mph.

Lingering major to moderate tidal flooding continued through the next couple of days due to a lingering 'seiche' wave in the river that gradually dampened with tide cycles.

Measured storm total rainfall across the county ranged between 2-4 inches.

Wider weather episode

Hurricane Nicole approached the SE FL Atlantic Coast and made landfall as a Category 1 near Vero Beach during the pre-dawn hours of Thursday, November 10th. Strong high pressure dominated NNE of the region ahead of Nicole on Wednesday, November 9th, which created strong onshore flow and gusty winds of 35-50 mph in a local 'nor'easter' type of event. This strong onshore flow combined with high astronomical tides 'charged' inland estuaries including the St. Johns River basin ahead of storm surge from Hurricane Nicole. Winds and ocean surge increased through Wednesday night with the peak of the storm surge along the local Atlantic Coast Thursday morning around high tide, then the surge peak down the St. Johns River through high tide Thursday afternoon. After landfall, Nicole weakened to a tropical storm as the center track WNW across central FL through the day Thursday then began a more northward turn across the central FL panhandle into Thursday night. The main local impacts from Nicole were storm surge inundation as well as tropical storm force wind damage.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1057208. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.