Tropical Storm — Coastal Glynn, Georgia

2023-08-30 · Coastal Glynn, Georgia

Event narrative

Glynn county experienced damage from tropical cyclone winds as well as 3 confirmed tornadoes. Damage

from tropical storm force winds focused across St. Simons Island in the Village where several trees were

damaged from Neptune Park to along Mallery Street and Mallery Park during the afternoon. There was also

some tree damage along Wilder Street. Additional trees were damaged along Crossbrook Drive, Beens Bend

and along Highway 17 just east of the Brunswick Airport.

At 0739, the ASOS at Brunswick McKinnon Airport (KSSI) measured a wind gust of 43 mph. At 1055, the

AWOS station at the Brunswick Golden Isles Airport (KBQK) measured a wind gust of 41 mph. At 1133, the

ASOS KSSI measured a wind gust of 52 mph. At 1215, a mesonet site on Jekyll Island measured a wind gust

of 55 mph. At 1353, the ASOS KSSI measured a wind gust of 56 mph. At 1431, the ASOS KSSI measured a

wind gust of 67 mph. At 1435, a storm spotter reported a 8-10 inch diameter tree branch was blown down

during a small wind gusts about 2 miles NNE of Country Club Estates. There were also numerous other

smaller limbs and branches down as well, and at the same time the AWOS KBQK measured a wind gust of 55

mph. At 1553, the ASOS KSSI measured a wind gust of 66 mph.

Wider weather episode

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 1126566. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.