South Florida has kicked off a week of cool, dry and sunny weather — bringing a welcome change to the storm system that lashed the region for four gusty days.
Wind gusts blasted coastal communities, which felt as if a tropical storm had hit us. And the soggy weather left 4 to 5 inches of rain in Palm Beach County, and 2 to 4 inches for most of Broward County.
It has given way to a cooldown. The forecast calls for overnight Monday into early Tuesday morning to be the chilliest, said Robert Garcia, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Miami. The wind chill will make temperatures feel like they’re in the 40s.
The rest of the week should remain dry. The overnight lows will be in the low 60s the rest of the week. As the week progresses, things should start to warm up, and possibly get a bit wet as Christmas approaches.
Garcia said we should have another front knocking on our door around Christmas Eve into Christmas Day. “We’ll have to keep an eye on that front to see what kind of shower or thunderstorm potential we have with it.”
Examining rainfall totals
The heaviest rain in the region fell overnight Saturday, with Wilton Manors receiving 2.84 inches in a 24-hour period, and Jupiter receiving 4.5 inches.
The wind was sometimes reminiscent of a tropical storm, but lasted much longer. While a tropical storm has sustained winds of more than 38 mph, wind gusts for this storm were well over that.
The National Weather service said that Pompano Beach had gusts to 52 mph, Fort Lauderdale saw 48 mph gusts, West Palm reached 61 mph, Juno Beach 63 and Gov Cut Miami Beach 64.
As the wind shifted on Sunday to blow from the south and then west, storm surge became an issue on Florida’s west coast, with flooding occurring in St. Petersburg, Tampa and Flamingo in Everglades National Park. High tides also aligned with the winds.
Will weather affect travel?
The storm, which traveled up the east coast and hammered the coastal Carolinas, also has caused flight delays and cancellations, particularly in the Northeast, including at JFK International Airport and LaGuardia Airport in New York City, Newark Liberty International Airport and Boston Logan International Airport.
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport said it was experiencing delayed flights from Boston, Philadelphia and New York airports. Miami International Airport said it has experienced delayed arrivals from these airports.
And Palm Beach County International Airport referred the news media to FlightAware.com, which indicated that the airport had experienced 34 delayed flights from various locations.
As of mid-day Monday, none of the South Florida airports had experienced canceled flights.
Beyond Florida
As the storm struck the coastal Carolinas, authorities there rescued dozens of motorists stranded by floodwaters in South Carolina’s waterfront community of Georgetown, Georgetown County spokesperson Jackie Broach said. More than 9 inches of rain fell in the area situated between Charleston and Myrtle Beach since late Saturday.
“It’s not just the areas that we normally see flooding, that are flood-prone,” Broach said. “It’s areas that we’re not really expecting to have flooding issues. … It’s like a tropical storm, it just happens to be in December.”
The tide in Charleston Harbor hit its fourth highest level on record and was “well above the highest tide for a non-tropical system,” according to the National Weather Service.
Though the storm produced tropical storm-like impacts, it was more akin to a nor’easter, Garcia said. Tropical systems need warm water, but nor’easters occur when cold air down from Canada collides with warm air from the Atlantic or Gulf. The storms usually travel in a northeasterly direction and pummel the northeast.
This time, the cold/warm boundary settled across South Florida.
“It served as a breeding ground for this low to develop over the Gulf of Mexico and get its act together as it moved eastward. It was like a nor’easter, but instead of happening off the Mid-Atlantic or New England, it ended up happening in the eastern Gulf.”
Information from The Associated Press was used to supplement this news article.