Tropical Depression — Metro Palm Beach County, Florida

2020-09-12 to 2020-09-13 · Metro Palm Beach County, Florida

Event narrative

As TD Nineteen moved westward across South Florida, rain bands produced maximum sustained winds generally between 25-30 mph. An earlier rain band moved across coastal Palm Beach County during the morning of September 12th, with peak wind gusts of 53 mph/46 knots at the WeatherStem site (0430W) at FAU Boca Raton and 43 mph/37 knots at the ASOS at West Palm Beach International Airport at 11:18 AM EDT. Overall wind impacts were minor and confined to trees and power lines.

Wider weather episode

A low pressure system, turned tropical disturbance, moving across the western Atlantic and over the Bahamas abruptly formed into Tropical Depression Nineteen on September 11th. Tropical Depression Nineteen gradually continued westward and the center passed about 10 to 20 miles SSE of Miami, Florida during the morning of September 12th with a minimum central pressure of 1007 mb and maximum sustained winds of 35 mph. As Tropical Depression Nineteen moved westward over the South Florida peninsula, it continued to strengthen into a Tropical Storm known as Tropical Storm Sally. Lowest surface pressure recorded over South Florida was 1002.9 mb at Naples Municipal Airport and Marco Island Airport and maximum sustained winds of 35 mph over land at FAU Boca Raton Campus on September 12. Recorded Tropical Storm force wind gusts were measured across South Florida ranging from 40 to 55 mph.

Although the effects from Tropical Depression Nineteen were generally minor for wind and more moderate to significant for rainfall/flooding for South Florida, wind gusts of tropical storm force were measured across much of Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, and Collier counties. Rainfall flooding impacts were moderate to significant across South Florida with around 3.5 to almost 10 inches across portions of Collier County, around 3 to almost 8 inches across portions of Miami-Dade County, and around 3 to almost 6 inches across portions of Broward County. Almost 4,000 customers lost power during the event, almost all of them split between Collier and Miami-Dade Counties. A peak storm surge of 1.43 feet was observed at Naples Pier and 1.16 at Virginia Key.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 918358. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.