Flash Flood — Palm Beach, Florida

2014-01-09 to 2014-01-11 · near Delray Beach, Palm Beach, Florida

Event narrative

Intense thunderstorms began to develop over the east coast metropolitan area of Palm Beach County during the evening hours and began to train across the same areas for the next several hours. As a result, high rainfall amounts were observed from Delray Beach to Jupiter. The heaviest rain fell from about 8 PM to Midnight. The area from Kings Point to Boynton Beach, Hypoluxo and Town of Palm Beach received the heaviest amounts of 10 to 20 inches, with the maximum amount reported from a mesonet site in Boynton Beach just east of I-95 and north of Gateway Boulevard receiving an astonishing 22.21 inches in about a 6-hour period. Other reports were 16.03 inches just southwest of Palm Beach, 15.04 inches at Lantana and 13.13 inches at Boynton Beach. These heavy rainfall amounts also resulted in several road closures including all lanes of I-95 in Boynton Beach between mile markers 56 and 60 with many cars on side streets reported being flooded. Tragically, two fatalities were also reported the following morning: a 56-year old female drove her vehicle off a flooded roadway in Delray Beach and into a lake and also in Delray Beach, a 90-year old male drowned after slipping into a canal while walking down a street. Several businesses and residences also reported inundation during the event but little damage was reported, including along Worth Avenue in Palm Beach, Boynton Beach east of I-95 and in parts of Delray Beach.

Approximately 200 homes had water intrusion, although the vast majority of these only had minor flooding. Damage totals indicated are estimated based on number of homes with water intrusion and level of water.

Wider weather episode

A warm front lifted north across South Florida and interacted with a very moist and tropical airmass to produce historic rainfall amounts across portions of eastern Palm Beach County during the late evening and overnight hours.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (26.4417, -80.1470)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 494715. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.