Hurricane Nicole Was A Damaging, Unusual November Strike In Florida (RECAP)

 weather.com meteorologists

Published: November 11, 2022

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H​urricane Nicole made an unusual November landfall in Florida, bringing damaging coastal flooding, high winds and heavy rain to some parts of the state that were also affected six weeks prior by Hurricane Ian.

N​icole was just the fourth November hurricane to landfall in the mainland U.S. in records dating to the mid-19th century, the first to do so since Hurricane Kate struck the Panhandle in 1985.

Most Damaging Legacy: Coastal Flooding

Despite its Category 1 winds, Nicole's large size lead to damaging impacts from coastal flooding.

T​he combination of Nicole's large circulation and high pressure to its north drove onshore winds that persisted before, and even after Nicole's storm surge moved through.

T​his persistent wind produced large, pounding waves and coastal flooding along the Southeast coast from Florida's Atlantic beaches to the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina that in some locations happened over three or more high tides.

H​ardest hit was a part of Florida Atlantic coast which also was ravaged by pounding surf, high winds and heavy rain from Hurricane Ian six weeks before Nicole.

C​oastal roads and beaches were eroded away, causing some buildings and parking lots to collapse, and leaving others in danger of collapse into the ocean.

​Significant surge flooding occurred in Port St. Lucie, Ft. Pierce, Melbourne, Daytona Beach, Palm Coast, Flagler Beach, St. Augustine and Fernandina Beach, among other locations.

Parts of Florida's Atlantic coast reported storm surge inundation from 3 to 4 feet above normal high tide on Nov. 10, including Fernandina Beach (3.81 feet), Mayport (3.57 feet) and Port Canaveral (3.61 feet).

That was the third highest level on record at Mayport, behind the 1898 Georgia hurricane and just slightly behind Hurricane Irma in 2017.

Significant flooding was also reported along the St. Johns River in north Florida, including around the Jacksonville metro area.

W​ater was reported up to thigh-high level in the Riverside neighborhood and surrounded homes in the Southampton neighborhood of Jacksonville.

Farther upstream on the St. Johns River, water was reported to be up to the heights of fire hydrants and mailboxes in Welaka, in Putnam County, in what the city's mayor said was worse flooding than Ian.

S​ome coastal flooding also occurred in South Florida, including West Palm Beach, Ft. Lauderdale and Hollywood.

Otherwise, i​nundation from 2 to 3 feet above normal high tide was also measured along the Georgia and South Carolina coasts, including Charleston, South Carolina.

F​t. Pulaski, Georgia, just west of Tybee Island, measured its sixth highest storm tide on record, resulting in an inundation of 2.91 feet above normal high tide. This lead to flooding in parts of Tybee Island, St. Simons Island and St. Marys, Georgia.

Storm History

N​icole first became a "subtropical storm" on Nov. 7 while it was hundreds of miles east of the Bahamas.

I​t was deemed a subtropical storm at the time because it was a mix of a tropical storm and the type of low-pressure system you see attached to cold and warm fronts. It also had a very large wind field.

I​nstead of exiting out into the open Atlantic, as storms that form in that part of the ocean often do in November, Nicole was blocked by high pressure to its north and steered toward the northwest Bahamas.

N​icole strengthened to a hurricane Nov. 9 while making its first landfall over Grand Bahama. A wind gust of 61 mph was recorded on the island.

S​torm surge flooding was captured on video in Marsh Harbour, in the Abaco Islands of the Bahamas, pummeled by Hurricane Dorian in 2019. Winds gusted up to 60 mph in Hope Town, according to the Bahamas Department of Meteorology.

N​icole's center then pushed ashore just south of Vero Beach, Florida, at 3 a.m. ET on Nov. 10. Its maximum sustained winds were 75 mph, making Nicole a Category 1 hurricane.

W​inds gusted 70 mph or greater on Florida's Atlantic coast, including in Port St. John (75 mph), Melbourne (72 mph) and Daytona Beach (70 mph). Wind gusts of 60 mph or higher were clocked in Orlando (66 mph), St. Petersburg (62 mph) and Jacksonville (60 mph) among other locations.

Nicole dumped from 2 to 7 inches of rain in central and northern Florida, including some areas soaked from Hurricane Ian. This heavy rain, lead to rises in the St. Johns River, which was only very slowly falling in the weeks after Ian. A river gauge at Astor, Florida, approached levels seen during record flooding from Hurricane Ian, before dropping a tad.

N​icole's remnant dumped heavy rain over the southern Appalachians on Veterans Day.

U​p to 9 inches of rain fell in western North Carolina, prompting at least one road closure and the evacuation of a mobile home park. Heavy rain also flooded lanes of Interstate 95 in downtown Richmond, Virginia.

N​icole's Other Oddities

Nicole was one of only four mainland U.S. November hurricane landfalls in recorded history.

N​icole was also the second latest in season hurricane to strike the mainland U.S. Only Hurricane Kate on Nov. 21, 1985 hit the U.S. later in November.

Nicole set a number of November low pressure records in eastern Florida, according to NOAA meteorologist David Roth.

N​icole also capped off an unusually active final month of the hurricane season.

F​ollowing Lisa and Martin, Nicole became the third storm to become a hurricane in November, tying 2001 for the most on record in November, according to Phil Klotzbach, tropical scientist at Colorado State University.

The three storms that all became hurricanes in November 2022. (Note: Lisa first formed in late October, but became a hurricane in November.)

I​f that wasn't weird enough, consider this, as pointed out by WINK News chief meteorologist Matt Devitt.

N​icole struck Florida 43 days after Hurricane Ian. In 2004, Hurricane Jeanne also struck Florida 43 days after Hurricane Charley.

N​ot only that, the paths of Charley and Ian, as well as Jeanne and Nicole, were eerily similar, though each storm was different.

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.

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.