At a Glance
- Significant coastal flooding affected parts of the Southeast coast over several days.
- Parts of the Carolinas, northeast Florida and Virginia coasts were the most impacted.
- Most of these areas saw flooding over many high tide cycles.
Significant coastal flooding occurred along parts of the Southeast coast as a coastal low moved northeastward past the Carolinas coupled with high tides from an alignment of the sun, Earth and moon.
High pressure built into the Northeast before the first week of November.
Then, low pressure formed near Florida's Atlantic coast and only slowly inched away into the western Atlantic Ocean for several days.
This difference in pressure drove northeast winds along the Southeast coast, whipping up high surf.
Tides were higher than normal at the same time onshore winds were blowing due to the alignment of the new moon with the moon's closest approach to Earth. These tides are known as the perigean spring tides.
Morning tides on Saturday, November 6 delivered a tropical-storm-like punch from northeast Florida to South Carolina.
In St. Augustine, Florida, the seawall was overtopped and widespread flooding was reported in the Davis Shores neighborhood. Water inundated streets, topped curbs and pushed into yards at some locations.
Water also buried the beach at Kiawah Island, South Carolina, and caused additional beach erosion at Edisto Beach, South Carolina. Some businesses were flooded in Garden City, just down the coast from Myrtle Beach on Monday.
Tidal flooding forced several downtown streets to close in Charleston, South Carolina and saltwater reached under several stilted homes on Headquarters Island. Charleston saw four separate tides reach "major" levels during this event, tying the most on record in any month, according to the National Weather Service.
In Georgia, St. Simon's Island saw more than two feet of flooding, which was the worst flooding since Hurricane Irma in 2017. The Ft. Pulaski tide gauge between Tybee Island and Savannah reached moderate flood stage three different times during this flood event, tying the most such moderate flood events in any month.
Wind gusts ranged between 50-70 mph from Florida's First Coast to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. One gust of 70 mph was recorded near Mayport, Florida, Saturday morning.
The storm also brought heavy rain to Florida, including pockets of 5-8" along Florida's East Coast. Daytona Beach picked up 7.25" from Nov. 5-6.
Temperatures were not quite tropical-storm-like however. Temperatures kept down to frigid values - for Florida - in Jacksonville on Saturday. With temperatures in the 40s most of the day and wind gusts of 20-30 mph, wind chills of the low 40s were seen for several hours during the day.
Thankfully, most of the rain stayed offshore on Sunday. However, onshore winds and morning high tides still caused minor to major flooding across portions of the Southeast Coast.
Farther north in North Carolina's Outer Banks, ocean overwash caused parts of state highway NC-12 to be shut down Sunday into Monday. Sunday's storm tide was the fourth highest in 22 years measured at Duck, North Carolina, according to the National Weather Service.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
