Strong nor’easter this weekend as record breaking tropics stay away from Jacksonville

Massive autumn high pressure to dominate the eastern United States this weekend

Weekend/early next week nor'easter rolls in and could be serious for coastal communities

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Massive autumn high pressure to dominate the eastern United States this weekend, sounds great, except if you live along the coastline of Georgia into Central Florida. Onshore winds in combination with the leftover ground swell of Paulette and the building ground swell from Teddy will cause heavy surf and life threatening rip currents. These coastal winds will likely gust to 35 mph and possibly as high as 45 mph as waves of downpours will push onto area beaches.

Pretty much ugly at times this weekend.

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Timing is still a challenge as there are so many tropical systems dancing around us, they will have an impact on how much we will see here in the Jacksonville area. Hurricanes in both the Gulf of Mexico and over the Atlantic as we kick off this work week. Sally is the one to watch as an “influencer” on our weekend weather. If Sally does takes a more easterly track, the result would not be so much a direct Sally impact on Jacksonville, but she could easily help drag more deep tropical air over us, just as the massive high pressure moves into the area on Friday and Saturday. In other words, allow for flooding rains this weekend into early next week.

It’s all about the PGF (Pressure Gradient Force).

With a super-sized high pressure to our north and generally lower than normal air pressure all around Jacksonville. This slightly lower than normal air pressure is also a contributor to our extremely busy hurricane season. So, building this weekend’s nor’easter will be: High pressure north and low pressure to the south, the greater the difference, the greater the coastal winds.

Tropical storm “Wilfred”???

There will be also be a possibility of another coastal tropical low pressure that could form within the battle field of high and low pressure. Tropical storm Wilfred could form just east of us early next week. Not a big probability, just putting it out there. TD#21 has now become Tropical Storm Vicky in the far, far, far eastern Atlantic Ocean.

So, what’s the breakdown for us?

Starting Saturday and going on until Tuesday, with Sunday evening likely to be the worst of it.

This is a developing situation, so stay tune!

Here’s more on the tropics: Sally and our local forecast.

Wind Gust Forecast for Sunday and the nor'easter