CRIME

Forecasters want photos of flooding as coastal flood advisory cited for St. Johns River

Dan Scanlan
Strawberry Creek, a tributary of the Arlington and St. Johns rivers, flooded parts of Arlington Road Sept. 11 as Hurricane Irma passed by Jacksonville. (Dan Scanlan/Florida Times-Union)

Jacksonville’s National Weather Service office wants your photos of flooding on the St. Johns River.

But forecasters don’t want images from Hurricane Irma’s record floods of almost two weeks ago.

They want what’s happening now from Palatka to Jacksonville, since it is under a coastal flood advisory, meteorologist Andrew Shashy said. That means minor flooding along portions of the St. Johns River and its tributaries from Jacksonville toward Palatka around high tide, he said.

“We want to see what the current conditions are on the river and what kind of impacts they have when the waters are at maximum high tide,” Shashy said. “The water levels are still elevated and continue to be through the weekend. Fortunately it is just a nuisance-type flooding and not a warning.”

The Weather Service posted the advisory Thursday afternoon. Forecasters said water levels will be slow to recede within the St. Johns River basin into the weekend as northeasterly winds strengthen. Areas that will flood are mainly waterfront parks and campgrounds as well as normally flood-prone roadways and some docks and boat ramps.

Renewed northeast winds this weekend will probably maintain water levels near where they are now, after it had been falling over the past three to five days, Shashy said. Also blame continuing effects of Hurricane Irma on some of the flood advisory as rain-driven high water continues to flow into Northeast Florida from the river’s headwaters in the Orlando area, he said.

“We just passed a new moon, so the tides are elevated already. Before Irma we had northeast winds and that held some of the water back,” he said. “It’s a combination of that and the rainfall. Plus water levels are usually elevated in September and October.”

Photos of current flooding on St. Johns River can be emailed to sr-jax.severewx@noaa.gov. They will be used to fine-tune forecasts as well as in public education events and the weather service’s website (weather.gov/jax) to show people the impacts of flooding, Shashy said.

Dan Scanlan: (904) 359-4549