Hurricane Central
By weather.com meteorologists
4 days ago
At a Glance
- Hurricane Debby washed ashore along Florida's Gulf Coast.
- It then meandered near the South Carolina coast before its final landfall as a tropical storm.
- Debby dumped flooding rain from Florida to the Northeast.
- Multiple damaging tornadoes were also spawned by Debby, including a rare tropical EF3 tornado.
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Hurricane Debby struck Florida's Big Bend, then lingered in the East with flooding, destructive tornadoes and some damaging wind gusts as far north as New York state.
Track History
Debby formed from a tropical wave the National Hurricane Center first started highlighting for possible development in the Atlantic on July 26.
Dry air kept it from developing for days as it tracked toward the northern Caribbean Islands. Eventually, it sprouted enough showers and thunderstorms, prompting the NHC to designate Tropical Depression Four at 11 p.m. EDT on Aug. 2 near Cuba.
It then strengthened into Tropical Storm Debby late on Aug. 3 in the southeast Gulf of Mexico.
Debby intensified into a hurricane at 11 p.m. on Aug. 4 ahead of its Category 1 landfall near Steinhatchee, Florida, on the morning of Aug. 5. That was just 15 miles away from where Hurricane Idalia made landfall along Florida's Big Bend last August.
Debby then moved inland over north Florida into southern Georgia, slowing its forward speed, before emerging back over the ocean just off the coast of South Carolina on Aug. 6.
By that time, Debby had begun ingesting some dry air, which not only had reduced the coverage of heaviest rainbands, but also limited its potential to restrengthen while over water.
Debby made its final landfall near Bulls Bay, South Carolina, at 2 a.m. EDT Aug. 8 with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph, then was downgraded to a tropical depression late that afternoon while centered just east of Charlotte, North Carolina.
As a post-tropical cyclone, Debby then tracked through the interior Northeast from the night of Aug. 8 through Aug. 9.
Rainfall Flooding
Debby dumped over 10 inches of rain over many areas from western and northern Florida into eastern Georgia and the Carolinas. The peak rainfall tally was 19.67 inches near Lake City, Florida.
Flash flooding and river flooding swamped some homes, washed out roads and stranded vehicles. Among the hardest hit areas were parts of Manatee and Sarasota Counties, Florida; Live Oak, Florida; eastern Georgia including near Statesboro, and parts of South Carolina's Lowcountry, where a 20-acre pond was drained after two holes were punched in dikes surrounding the pond, a stretch of Interstate 26 was flooded, and the town of Moncks Corner was flooded after being hit by a destructive EF1 tornado.
Flooding was also reported in North Carolina, including Fayetteville and the Wilmington, North Carolina, metro area, where at least 3 feet of water was reported on roads north of Carolina Beach and near Leland.
The Manatee River just east of Bradenton, Florida (Rye Bridge), topped its previous record flood crest from July 21, 1962. The Canoochee River near Claxton, Georgia, topped its previous record crest that stood since New Year's Day 1925.
In the Northeast, from 3 to 5 inches of rain prompted rare flash flood emergencies for three separate areas near the New York-Pennsylvania border on Aug. 9. Flood waters swept away homes and left others needing rescue from their rooftops in Tioga County, Pennsylvania. Multiple homes were surrounded by water in Delaware County, New York.
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Over 30 river gauges rose to moderate or major flood stage from Florida to New York state.
Storm Surge
Debby pushed Gulf water into the Florida coast as a tropical storm and hurricane, adding to the storm's water impact.
This storm surge hit some of the same areas affected by Idalia almost one year ago, but likely not nearly matching the 8 to 12-foot inundation above ground of Idalia from Keaton Beach to Steinhatchee.
Cedar Key, Florida, had a storm surge of up to 5.8 feet above normal tide levels, equating to a peak inundation of about 4.65 feet above ground level as Hurricane Debby made landfall on Aug. 5.
Farther south, the combination of a new moon, high tide and Debby lead to a peak inundation at Ft. Myers, Florida, higher than Idalia and Irma, according to WINK-TV meteorlogist Matt Devitt, at just over 3 feet above ground level.
The surge and battering waves ate away at the side of the Howard Frankland Bridge over Old Tampa Bay, and chewed up a section of Harbor Drive in Venice, Florida.
Winds
Debby produced wind gusts of at least 70 mph near Chiefland (76 mph), Dania Beach (73 mph) and near Palmetto (70 mph).
Gusts over 60 mph were clocked at Cedar Key, Sarasota-Bradenton Airport (63 mph) and at Folly Beach, South Carolina (63 mph).
At the peak of the storm, over 300,000 customers were without power from Florida to the Carolinas.
Even after Debby made its final landfall, wind gusts over 30 mph and soaked ground lead to downed trees in over 70 locations in the Carolinas and southern Virginia. Numerous trees were downed in Rockingham, Stokes and Yadkin Counties, North Carolina.
Tornadoes
As with most landfalling hurricanes and tropical storms, some tornadoes were spawned across the Southeast within Debby's rainbands.
At least seven tornadoes were spawned in the Lowcountry of South Carolina on the night of Aug. 5. That included an EF1 tornado in Edisto Beach and another EF1 twister in Moncks Corner.
Two days later, at least one, possibly two separate tornadoes spin through eastern North Carolina, damaging homes in Sampson County and tossing debris onto a highway in Pender County, north of Wilmington.
A deadly tornado after midnight on Aug. 8 near Lucama, North Carolina, collapsed a home, claiming one life. It was also rated EF3, one of only seven tornadoes spawned by tropical cyclones since 1995 to be rated that high. according to NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.
Other tornadoes generated by Debby included an EF2 in Greene County, North Carolina, and an EF1 tornado in northern Delaware.
MORE ON WEATHER.COM: Photos From Debby's Damage
