Dorian's storm surge compared to Hurricanes Irma, Matthew

The surge levels were significantly less in every area of town

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The worst of Dorian stayed offshore of our area, but our beaches and waterways did see some storm surge flooding, but in every area of town, the surge measured far less than that of Hurricanes Irma and Matthew.

Downtown Jacksonville at the Main Street Bride barely reached flood stage with Dorain, at 4:54 p.m. the water levels peaked at 1.42'. During Irma the record for this location was set when the water reached 4.90'. Hurricane Matthew did not cause flooding here in 2016. 

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At the Tolomato River gauge at St. Augustine the water peaked at 3.16' above Mean High High Water (MHHW,) at 1:45 p.m. on Wednesday. At this location we saw the the highest peak on record during Hurricane Irma when in hit 3.61', and the second highest on record during Hurricane Matthew when it hit 3.58'. 

On the Matanzas River at Bing's landing, the water peaked just below Major flood stage at 3:12 p.m. at 3.05' because of Hurricane Dorian's storm surge. This is almost 2 feet below what we saw at this location with Hurricane Matthew, which was 5.19' and also below Irma's level of 4.19'. 

In Nassau County, the Fernandina Beach location peaked at 2.55' above MHHW, which is half a foot above flood stage, but less than what we saw with Irma, 3.58'. Dorian's strom surge ranks as the 11th highest storm surge ever measured from this location. 

The Mayport tidal gauge reached 2.13' Wednesday afternoon, falling short of Irma's level of 2.8'. 2.13' ties the record for the 10th highest storm surge ever measured at this location. 

Near Marineland, Pelicer Creek' tidal gauge peaked at 2' above MHHW.