Tropical Storm — Metro Palm Beach County, Florida
2020-11-08 · Metro Palm Beach County, Florida
Event narrative
As TS Eta moved westward across the Florida Keys, rain bands produced maximum sustained winds generally between 30-40 mph across metro Palm Beach County. An earlier rain band moved across metro Palm Beach County during the evening hours of November 8th, with peak wind gusts of 53 mph/46 knots measured by the ASOS at Palm Beach International Airport at 08:08 PM EST on November 8th. Additional wind gusts recorded of 48 mph/42 knots measured by the AWOS at North Palm Beach County Airport at 08:30 PM EST on November 8th, and 44 mph/38 knots measured by the AWOS at Lantana Airport at 8:55 PM EST on November 8th. A total of around 109,930 customers lost power in Palm Beach County. Overall wind impacts were mainly confined to trees and power lines.
Wider weather episode
A tropical wave, turned tropical depression, moving westward across the western Caribbean Sea abruptly formed into an intense Category 4 hurricane before making landfall over western Nicaragua on November 3rd, with a minimum central pressure of 923 mb just before landfall, and a minimum central pressure of 940 mb at landfall. Eta then weakened into a Tropical Depression as it moved across Central America and before it re-entered the western Caribbean Sea. Eta maintained Tropical Depression status for a few days before restrengthening into a Tropical Storm on November 7th, just west of the Cayman Islands. Tropical Storm Eta continued moving northward while intensifying into a strong Tropical Storm just before making landfall over Cuba early morning on November 8th. Tropical Storm Eta then began to move northwestward and towards FL on November 8th, with the center passing about 70 to 80 miles southwest of Miami, Florida and about 100 to 110 miles southeast of Naples, Florida. Strong Tropical Storm Eta made landfall on Lower Matecumbe Key in the Florida Keys with maximum winds estimated to be near 65 mph and a minimum central pressure of 991 mb.
As Tropical Storm Eta continues to move westward into the Gulf of Mexico, it maintained Tropical Storm intensity. The lowest surface pressure recorded over South Florida was 1001.3 mb at Homestead Air Reserve with maximum sustained winds of 61 mph over land at Cache, located in west/central Miami-Dade County, during the early morning hours on November 9th. Recorded Tropical Storm force wind gusts were measured across South Florida ranging from 45 to 70 mph. Tropical Storm Eta then meandered offshore southwest Florida the next couple of days before making landfall yet again near Cedar Key, Florida on November 12th.
Although the effects from Tropical Storm Eta were generally minor for wind and more 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 significant across South Florida, with around 4 to almost 21 inches across portions of Broward County, around 4 to almost 14 inches across portions of Miami-Dade County, and around 4 to almost 7 inches across portions of Collier and Palm Beach County. Almost 294,000 customers lost power during the event, most of them split between Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties. A peak storm surge of 3.39 feet was observed at Naples Pier, 2.26 feet at Virginia Key, and 1.95 feet at Port Everglades.
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 924909. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.