Waterspout — Altamaha Sd To Fernandina Beach Fl Out 20nm, Atlantic South

2023-08-30 · near Brunswick, Altamaha Sd To Fernandina Beach Fl Out 20nm, Atlantic South

Event narrative

A waterspout moved onshore from the Brunswick River and tracked to the NNW across the westside of the city of Brunswick near New Castle Street where damage to trees and some structures occurred. The tornado continued to track NNW very close to the New Jesup Highway (Highway 341) where additional tree and structure damage occurred. Peak winds were estimated at 90-94 mph making the tornado an EF1.

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 eatern 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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (31.1600, -81.5000)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1129138. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.