Flood — Ashtabula, Ohio

2020-02-01 to 2020-02-29 · near Sullivan, Ashtabula, Ohio

Event narrative

Record Lake Erie water levels for February resulted in continued and exasperated lakeshore flooding and erosion. There were two storm events that brought lakeshore flooding to the western basin on the 5th and 6th, and the other on the 27th. In addition to these wind driven events, weakened shorelines showed signs of collapse and erosion throughout the month. Erosion was made worse by the lack of ice over the winter. Lake Erie reported only .4 percent of ice coverage compared to the average of 67 percent in mid February. The lack of ice supported increased wave runup, eroding away cliffs, washing out beaches and damaging shoreline infrastructure.

Of note, in Geneva on the Lake the Geneva Township Park lost 45 feet of land between the 3rd and 13th of the month. About 600 feet of the park's 916 feet of lakefront was affected. Similar if less severe erosion occurred across all of Lake Erie lakeshore counties.

Wider weather episode

Lake Erie continued its seasonal rise in February, rising 4 inches from January to February to a level of 573.82 feet. This level was a new record high monthly mean water level for February, surpassing its previous record set in 1987 by 5 inches. The level was also 11 inches above the February 2019 level.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (41.9728, -80.5191)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 877748. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.