Coastal Flood — Coastal Nassau, Florida

2021-11-05 to 2021-11-07 · Coastal Nassau, Florida

Event narrative

On Friday 11/5 at 10:06 am local time, the Fernandina Beach NOS Tide Gauge (FRDF1) reached a peak water level of 2.65 ft above MHHW datum. Moderate tidal flooding for this location begins at 2.50 ft MHHW. At 10:40 am on 11/5, broadcast media reported street flooding along North Front Street of unknown depth.

On Saturday 11/6, the Fernandina Beach NOS Tide Gauge (FRDF1) reached a peak water level of 2.83 ft MHHW datum. At 12 pm on 11/6, emergency management reported tidal flooding up to the train tracks along North Front Street.

On Sunday 11/7, the Fernandina Beach NOS Tide Gauge (FRDF1) reached a water level of 2.93 ft MHHW datum. This was the 7th highest flooding level on record for this location and was the highest recorded water level since Hurricane Irma in Sept. 2017. This was the highest water level that occurred at this location with a non-tropical weather system.

Wider weather episode

An area of low pressure developed across the southern Gulf of Mexico on Friday Nov. 5th and tracked eastward across north-central Florida Friday night, deepening offshore of the local NE FL Atlantic coast on Saturday Nov. 6th as strong surface high pressure wedged southward north of the region. This created a rare, true Nor'Easter event for the local area which including coastal and tidal flooding with inundation of 2-3 ft at high tides and damaging wind gusts, A High Wind Warning and Storm Warning for coastal and marine areas was issued. Localized heavy rainfall occurred for portions of coastal NE Florida. Moderate to major coastal erosion occurred. Coastal wind gusts of 40-50 mph started Friday morning then increased to 45-55 mph into Friday evening. The strongest winds of the event occurred for coastal NE FL Saturday morning, Nov. 6th, with sustained speeds 45-55 mph and gusts 60-70 mph. A peak wind gust of 68 mph was measured at the St. Augustine C-MAN station Saturday morning 11/6 around 06:30 am (peak sustained wind was 55 mph from the north) with a gust of 70 mph at 5:37 am at the Huguenot Park mesonet site. Moderate tidal flooding occurred along the local Atlantic coast with inundation of 2-3 feet.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 990284. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.