Tropical Storm — Baker, Florida

2024-09-26 to 2024-09-27 · Baker, Florida

Event narrative

Widespread tree damage and power line downed likely occurred in Baker county with the number of customers without power on Friday afternoon Sep 27th at least 3800 out of a total of 5800. Max gust of 51 mph from the SSE was measured in Olustee at about 1:04 am on the 27th, and 46 mph from the SSE in Macclenny at about 12:10 am on the 27th, via Weatherstem.

Wider weather episode

Hurricane Helene made landfall as a category 4 with peak winds of near 140 mph in the Florida Big

Bend just east of the Aucilla River Entrance in Taylor County, late Thursday evening September 26,

2024. Helene's main impact to southeast Georgia and northeast Florida was wind damage as it

tracked quickly north-northeast. The very powerful hurricane and the forward motion produced a

wide swath of wind damage across the forecast area with peak wind gusts 55 to 75 mph across the

eastern half of the area, and western zones up to 75 to 100 mph from the Suwannee Valley area

northward through interior southeast GA. The max wind gust of 100 mph was measured at the Alma

GA ASOS in the early morning hours of Friday September 27th. Given the strength of these winds,

widespread power outages, structure damage and downed or uprooted trees occurred across inland

southeast GA and portions of northeast FL. At least 1 tornado occurred, which was in Coffee county.

Maximum rainfall amounts of 3 to 5 inches were located over western half of the area.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1217436. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.