Tropical Storm — Bacon, Georgia

2023-08-30 · Bacon, Georgia

Event narrative

Tropical storm force wind gusts and flash flooding impacted the county on 8/30. At 1232 am, a 41 mph wind

gust was measured at the ASOS station at the Bacon County Airport. By 1316, a public rain gauge measured

4.84 inches of storm total rainfall about 3 miles NNW of Alma. Several other reports of 4-5 inches fell within

the city limits of Alma. Numerous gauges measured 4-5 inches of rainfall from Alma to Nichols to Douglas

near the Highway 32 corridor. By 1325, a public weather gauge about 7 miles north of Alma along New Hope

Church Road measured 5.53 inches of storm total rainfall. At 1522, the ASOS at the Bacon County Airport

measured a 47 mph (KAMG) then at 1553 the ASOS measured a 56 mph wind gust.

Hurricane Idalia made landfall Wednesday morning August 30th around 745 AM EDT along the

Florida Big Bend near Keaton Beach as a category 3, with the inner core moving NE across the

Suwannee River Valley. The inner wind core of Idalia gradually weakened through the morning while,

heavily impacting Suwannee and Hamilton counties in NE Florida and Echols county SE Georgia as the

circulation tracked NE. Widespread tree, power line and structure damage occurred across Suwannee

and Hamilton counties, with estimated winds of 80-100 mph based on damage surveys with isolated

pockets of peak wind gusts near major hurricane strength. Outer rainbands on the eastside of Idalia

impacted all of SE Georgia and NE FL through the day, with early morning tornadoes across coastal SE

Georgia and widespread tropical cyclone wind gusts through the day causing tree damage and power

line damage at least somewhere across NE Florida and SE Georgia. Measured gusts during the peak of

the hurricane acorss the local forecast area were 60-80 mph. Flooding rainfall impacted locations in

the direct path of the weakening inner core across the Suwannee River Valley and southeast Georgia,

especially from eastern Hamilton county toward Baxley and Jesup GA. The peak rainfall amounts were

up to 5-8 inches. At least 3 tornadoes occurred in southeast GA as rainbands swept northwestward

ahead of the hurricane.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1126558. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.