Tropical Storm — Far South Miami-dade County, Florida
2020-11-08 to 2020-11-09 · Far South Miami-dade 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 inland Miami-Dade County. A rain band moved across inland Miami-Dade County during the early morning hours of November 9th, with peak wind gusts of 61 mph/53 knots measured by the RAWS mesonet site at Cache (LPIF1) at 12:23 AM EST on November 9th. Additional wind gusts recorded of 52 mph/45 knots measured by the ASOS at Tamiami Airport at 09:53 PM EST on November 8th. A total of around 93,630 customers lost power in Miami-Dade County. Overall wind impacts were mainly confined to trees and power lines, with several concentrated areas of downed trees and poles along the barrier island communities as well as in deep south Miami-Dade County.
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 930131. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.