Tropical Storm — Coastal St. Johns, Florida

2023-08-30 · Coastal St. Johns, Florida

Event narrative

Tropical cyclone winds impacted the county on 8/30. FPL reported a large tree fell on power lines near St.

Augustine.

A mesonet site in Summerhouse measured a wind gust of 42 mph on 8/30 at 0644. At 0700, a mesonet site

in the City of Saint Augustine measured a wind gust of 41 mph. At 0730, the same mesonet site measured a

wind gust of 42 mph. At 0800, the C-Man station at St. Augustine Beach (SAUF1) measured a wind gust of 44

mph. At 0828, a mesonet site Lewis measured a wind gust of 41 (about 2 miles NW of the City of St.

Augustine). The C-man station SAUF1 measured a wind gust of 46 mph at 0900. At 0942, the St. Augustine

Regional Airport AWOS (KSGJ) measured a gust of 40 mph. At 1010, a mesonet site at the St. Johns County

Fire Rescue station about 1 mile ENE of Hastings measured a wind gust of 41 mph. At 1106, the AWOS KSGJ

measured a wind gust of 41 mph. At 1140, the City of St Augustine mesonet site measured a gust of 46 mph.

At 1210, the same site measured a gust of 47 mph. At 1507, the AWOS KSGJ measured a gust of 43 mph. At

1550, the St. Johns County Fire Rescue station about 2 miles SSE of South Ponte Vedra Beach measured a

wind gust of 45 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 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 1127284. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.