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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

 

 

Coastal Flooding

High storm tides led to several rounds of minor tidal flooding along the Cape Fear River around Wilmington, NC.  

 

Tornadoes

Three weak tornadoes were confirmed, including 2 EF-0 tornadoes in Pender County, NC and an EF-0 in Brunswick County, NC. 

 

Additional Links

Page Author: Bob Bright
Last Updated: September 8, 2024