Tropical Storm — Coastal Flagler, Florida

2023-08-30 · Coastal Flagler, Florida

Event narrative

Tropical cyclone winds impacted the county on 8/30.

On 8/29 at 1930, the Hammock Dunes bridge measured a wind gust of 40 mph.

On 8/30 at 0557 the Marineland WeatherStem station measured a gust of 43 mph, then at 0600, the station

had a gust of 45 mph. At 0700, the site had a gust of 43 mph. At 1011, A spotter in Flagler Beach measured a

gust of 41 mph. At 1120, the Marineland Weather Stem measured sustained tropical storm force winds of 39

mph multiple times with a peak gust of 40 mph. At 1130, a mesonet site about 2 miles east of Palm Coast

had a wind gust of 42 mph. Between 1200-1220, spotters in south Flagler Beach along the Intracoastal

Waterway measured gusts between 46-48 mph. Between 1230 to 1300, power lines were blown down in

isolated locations of east Flagler Beach. At 1213, a spotter measured sustained winds of 35 mph with a gust

of 48 mph in north Flagler Beach. Flagler County Fire Rescue responded to a few reports of trees down into

power lines during this time as well, including at 16 Palm Drive about 1 mile NNE of Bunnell. At 1251, the

Marineland mesonet site measured a gust of 44 mph. Between 1300-1400, there were multiple measured

wind gusts greater than 39 mph from Marineland to Flagler Beach. At 1610, the Marineland mesonet site

measured a gust of 49 mph which was the peak measured gust at this location.

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 1126915. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.