Tropical Storm — Western Clay, Florida

2024-09-26 · Western Clay, Florida

Event narrative

Over 34,000 customers (about 34% of the county) were without power after the storm passed early Friday Morning, the 27th. Many downed trees and powerlines throughout the county, resulting in several road closures. Tree fell on a home causing roof damage along Old Jennings Rd in Middleburg. A tree fell on a car along Apopka Dr in Middleburg. Black creek also flooded nearby roads.

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 1217455. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.