Coastal Flood — Coastal Duval, Florida

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

Event narrative

On Friday 11/5 at 10 am local time, the Mayport NOS tide gauge (MYPF1) reached a peak water level of 2.07 ft MHHW datum. Minor coastal flooding begins at 1.80 ft MHHW. At 10:42 am on 11/5, the tide gauge on the Dames Point Bridge (DMSF1) reached a peak water level of 1.85 ft MHHW datum. Minor coastal flooding begins at 1.60 ft MHHW. At 10:45 am on 11/5, the public reported that the water level was up to the pavement edge along Heckscher Drive near Browns Creek Bridge. At 11:57 am, the public reported that Kings Road Bridge in Neptune Beach was impassable due to tidal flooding and submerged.

On Saturday 11/6 at 11:18 am, the NOS tide gauge at Mayport reached a peak water level of 2.37 ft MHHW datum. Moderate tidal flooding begins at 2.30 ft MHHW. At 11:29 am, broadcast media reported standing water along the end of Hood Landing Road near Clarks Fish Camp of unknown depth, but the road was impassable due to tidal flooding from Julington Creek. At 12 pm, the tide gauge on the Dames Point Bridge (DMSF1) reached a peak water level of 2.25 ft MHHW datum. Moderate coastal flooding begins around 2.10 ft MHHW. At 1 pm on 11/6, the public reported Kings Road was nearly impassable with about 1 ft of water over the road due to tidal flooding from Hopkins Creek. At 2 pm on 11/6, broadcast media reported that tidal flooding from Sisters Creek was flooding the parking lot of the Sisters Creek boat ramp. The depth of water was unknown. At 3:20 pm, the public reported that tidal flooding from Hopkins Creek flooded the low lying portion of Kings Road Bridge. The water was of unknown depth and the road appeared passable.

On 11/7 at 10:54 am, the Mayport tide gauge (MYPF1) reached a water level of 2.51 ft MHHW datum. This was the 6th highest water level on record at this station, the highest water level since Hurricane Irma in Sept 2017, and just higher than the water levels during Hurricanes Dora (1964) and Jeanne (2004). This was the highest water level that occurred with a non-tropical weather system. At 11:48 am, the Dames Point Bridge tide gauge reached a water level of 2.41 ft MHHW. Moderate tidal flooding begins around 2.1 ft MHHW. This was the 4th highest water level on record at this station and the highest water level since Hurricane Irma (2017). This was also the highest water level that occurred 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 990304. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.