Tropical Storm — Southern Columbia, Florida

2023-08-30 · Southern Columbia, Florida

Event narrative

Tropical cyclone winds heavily impacted the county with widespread tree, power lines and structural

damage, especially across the western tier of the county on 8/30. Numerous large, healthy live oak trees

were blown down unidirectionally near the Solar Farm City along Interstate 10 just west of the I-75 and I-10

interchange. The damage extended along I-10 for about mile, but tree damage did not block the

interstate.

At 0750, a mesonet station about 1 mile ESE of Lake City measured a wind gust of 41 mph. At 0755 am, the

Lake City Airport AWOS (KLCQ) measured a wind gust of 45 mph. At 0835 am, the AWOS KLCQ measured a

wind gust of 46 mph. At 0915, the AWOS KLCQ measured a wind gust of 47 mph. At 0959, a mesonet station

at the Suwannee Forestry Center measured a wind gust of 40 mph. At 1035, the AWOS at KLCQ measured a

wind gust of 51 mph. At 1059, the same mesonet station measured a wind gust of 46 mph. At 1330,

broadcast media shared a photo of a large tree blown down onto power lines across Colburn Avenue in Lake

City. A rotten oak tree snapped at the base of the trunk and fell onto a house near Brown St causing roof damage.

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 1126911. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.