Tropical Storm — Western Alachua, Florida

2023-08-30 · Western Alachua, Florida

Event narrative

Tropical cyclone winds impacted the county on 8/30. Trees and power lines were blown down.

At 0600, a 59-year-old man died when he crashed into a tree near State Road 20 and Southeast 60th Terrace,

in Gainesville due to heavy rainfall. At 0710, a spotter reported a large tree and power lines were blown

down about 3 miles NNE of Newberry. At 0720, the ASOS KGNV at the Gainesville Regional Airport measured

a 40 mph wind gust. At 0750, a mesonet station about 3 miles SE of the University of Florida measured a

wind gust of 45 mph at the Sweetwater Wetlands Park. At 0830, a mesonet site about 1 mile NE of the

University of Florida measured a wind gust of 51 mph. More than 30 downed trees and power outages were

reported.

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 powerline damage at least somewhere across NE Florida and SE Georgia. Measured gusts during the peak of the hurricane across 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 1126892. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.