Tropical Storm Debby: August 5-9, 2024

Overview

After making landfall in the Big Bend area of Florida as a Category 1 hurricane on August 5, Debby weakened to a tropical storm as it slowly moved across southeastern Georgia and offshore before making another landfall along the central SC coast between Charleston and Georgetown. The storm then moved northwest to near the SC/NC border and weakened to a tropical depression on August 8 before quickly becoming a non-tropical low pressure system. The storm's main impact across southeastern NC and northeastern SC was flash/river flooding from heavy rainfall but tropical storm force wind gusts, minor coastal flooding and 3 weak tornadoes also occurred.

Infrared Satellite Loop - Aug 5-8, 2024

Winds

Tropical storm force wind gusts up to near 55 mph occurred across the region. The combination of gusty winds and heavy rain led to some downed trees and power lines.

NHC Tropical Storm and Hurricane Force Wind Swaths of Debby

Location	Peak Wind Gust (mph)	Peak Wind Gust (kt)
Land
Winyah Bay, SC - Range A Rear Light	53
Wilmington, NC - KILM	51
N Myrtle Beach, SC - KCRE	48
Murrells Inlet, SC	47
Lumberton, NC - KLBT	46
Bennettsville, SC - KBBP	44
Oak Island, NC	44
Lockwoods Folly Inlet, NC	44
North Masonboro Island, NC	44
Georgetown, SC	43
Myrtle Beach, SC - KMYR	40
Marine
Wrightsville Beach, NC - Johnnie Mercers Pier		45
Myrtle Beach, SC - Springmaid Pier		43
Sunset Beach, NC - Nearshore Buoy		41
Frying Pan Shoals Buoy - 41013		40
Wrightsville Beach, NC - Nearshore Buoy		39

Rainfall

Widespread heavy rain fell across southeastern NC and northeastern SC with totals generally ~5-10" inland and along the coast and a wide swath of 10-15+" between I-95 and the coast. As shown in the table below, the highest rainfall total observed from 8 AM August 5 to 8 AM August 9 was 19.03" along the Waccamaw River in Horry County, SC. The heavy rainfall caused significant flash flooding across much of the area as well as significant river flooding for several weeks after the storm with several locations reaching moderate to major flood levels. In fact, the Waccamaw River near Conway, SC crested at 14.9 ft (~1 foot above major flood stage) almost 2 weeks after the storm and didn't fall below minor flood stage (11 ft) until August 31.

Radar Loop - Aug 5-8, 2024

Rainfall Observations from 8 AM 8/5/24 to 8 AM 8/9/24

Location	Rainfall (inches)
Waccamaw River	19.03
Loris	17.04
Leland	15.75
Kingstree - LNJ Bridge	15.71
Little River	15.61
Shallotte Fire Station	15.27
Bucksport 2 N	15.11
Georgetown - Spring Gully	15.02
Kingstree	14.93
Lumber River State Park	14.60
Leland 5.7 WSW	13.92
Leland 4.3 WSW	13.91
Finklea	13.90
Calabash 1.9 NNE	13.87
Conway - Horry County Police	13.85
Wilmington 2 WSW	13.80
Calabash	13.62
Leland 1.4 WNW	13.55
Holden Beach 1 W	13.46
Shallotte	13.35
Sunset Harbor	13.21
Carolina Shores 1.8 NE	13.11
Andrews	13.10