Unsettled Weather in the Western U.S.; Snow in the Upper Midwest

Coastal/low elevation rain and high elevation snow will extend from the Pacific Northwest into parts of California early this week. Moderate to heavy snow is expected from the Intermountain West into the central Rockies through Tuesday. Several inches of snow is expected over the Upper Peninsula of Michigan into northeast Minnesota through Tuesday. Read More >

Veterans Day Storm 2009

Weather Event Archive

The remnants of Hurricane Ida made landfall as a tropical storm along the U.S. Gulf Coast (near the Alabama-Florida border) on Tuesday morning, November 10, 2009. Tropical Storm Ida weakened quickly after landfall and was soon absorbed by a frontal boundary advancing toward the southeast U.S. Coast. By Thursday morning, the remnant low was located near the North Carolina coastal waters. The interaction between this low and a strong high pressure system located over eastern Canada produced an intense pressure gradient over the mid-Atlantic region, including New Jersey and Delaware, which persisted for several tide cycles, from Thursday morning through most of Saturday.

Wind gusts up to 60 MPH were reported along the Delaware coast Thursday afternoon, with gusts up to 50 MPH reported along the southern New Jersey coast. A wind gust of 60 MPH was also reported at the Delaware Bay Buoy (44009), located 26 NM SE of Cape May. Even more impressive was the prolonged period of strong onshore winds (34 KT or greater) which persisted for more than 30 hours in some locations.

Location	Period of sustained winds >= 34kt (hrs)	Peak Gust (kt)
Sea Girt, NJ	31	38
Harvey Cedars, NJ	32	47
Atlantic City, NJ	40	46
Lowes Twp, De	50	50

The combination of the prolonged northeast flow, a long fetch, and the proximity of a new moon on November 16th, produced large wave heights and strong wave action at the shore. Severe beach erosion occurred along both the New Jersey and Delaware coasts. Moderate to severe tidal flooding also ccurred along both the Atlantic coast and the back bays. Flooding on some barrier islands was worse on the bay side than on the ocean side because of the build-up of water between tide cycles. Heavy rain was confined to Delaware and sections of southern New Jersey where it exacerbated flooding problems in those areas. The National Weather Service Forecast Office in Mount Holly, NJ prepared a complete recap of storm impacts including damage hot spots, buoy data and comparisons to other storms.

Location	Highest Water Level (MLLW) (ft)	Departure (ft)	Date/Time
Lewes, DE	7.88	3.2	6:24AM Nov 13
Cape May, NJ	8.20	2.7	5:36AM Nov 13
Atlantic City, NJ	7.57	2.9	4:12AM Nov 13
Sandy Hook, NJ	7.88	2.3	5:36AM Nov 14

The National Weather Service Forecast Office in Mount Holly, NJ prepared a complete recap of storm impacts including damage hot spots, buoy data and comparisons to other storms.

View the presentation

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