Flash Flood — Alachua, Florida

2023-09-01 · near Gainesville West, Alachua, Florida

Event narrative

Street flooding was first reported around 2:46 pm near Main Street and near the 500 block of 32rd Avenue in Gainesville. A mesonet station about 2 miles SE of Gainesville measured 2.8 inches of rainfall in one hour at 2:45 pm. At 3:14 pm, Fire Rescue reported flash flooding was developing along NW 23rd Avenue in Gainesville. At 3:16 pm, at public weather station measured around 4.5 inches of rainfall about 1 mile SE of Gainesville since 1:45 pm. At 3:35 pm, a CoCoRaHS station about 2 miles SE of Gainesville measured 4.47 inches since 1:52 pm which created flooding conditions. By 4 pm, the county 911 dispatch center reported several roads within about a 10 block radius in Gainesville experienced significant flash flooding. There were some road closures at the time of the report.

Wider weather episode

A wake trough in trailing the departure of Hurricane Idalia lingering across NE FL. This feature combined with high tropical moisture, diurnal instability and the inland progressing west coast sea breeze produced localized heavy, flooding rainfall.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (29.6587, -82.3408)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1129979. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.