Tropical Storm — Coastal Nassau, Florida

2019-09-04 · Coastal Nassau, Florida

Event narrative

At 2:26 pm on 9/4, broadcast media showed a video of minor flooding from water pushed onto North Front Street near Center Street. At 2:30 pm, the water level reached 2.55 ft MHHW at the Fernandina Beach tide gauge. Coastal flooding was estimated to begin at 2 ft MHHW. This water level was the highest level recorded since 3.58 ft above MHHW that occurred during Hurricane Irma. The 2.55 ft MHHW was ranked as the 11th highest storm surge value on recorded for this site. The Fernandina Beach Airport measured a peak wind of 32 mph on 9/4 at 1:55 pm with a peak gust of 45 mph at the same time. The NOS station at Fernandina Beach measured a peak wind of 31 mph on 9/4 at 1:18 pm and a peak wind of 48 mph at the same time.

Wider weather episode

Hurricane Dorian passed between 80-100 NM offshore of the local Atlantic Coast through the day on Sept. 4, 2019, as a Cat 2 storm on its closet approach. Ahead of Dorian, elevated King Tides and persistent onshore flow already raised water levels within the local estuaries by about 1-1.5 ft including the ICWW and St. Johns River basin. Total water rise (storm tide) associated with Dorian was up to 3.2 ft MHHW along the St. Johns county coast to about 1.5-2 ft MHHW within the St. Johns River basin. Heaviest rainfall was confined to a couple bands in St. Johns & Flagler counties. Wind damage was confined to the immediate coast and areas generally east of the I-95 corridor. There was damage to some beach structures including piers and boardwalks. Some homes flooded in Davis Shores of St. Augustine due to surge flooding & rainfall.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 855047. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.