Portsmouth, Virginia
Hurricane FLoyd continued to intensify anxieties of residents here as it moved
NNE into Wilmington NC late Wednesday and then on NNE to just east of this station at midday on
Thursday.
The storm will be remembered here for its downpours, arriving far ahead of the
storm along a trough which was intereacting with the approaching Floyd, and the
subsequent flooding- from rainfall as well as tidal flooding!
Station daily rainfall record amounts associated with Floyd:
Thursday, 9/16 - 3.10"
Total - 10.10"
Wednesday began with downpours moving into the area, particularly over the
mid and lower Peninsula (Hampton, Newport News, Poquoson) at morning rush hour.
Quickly those areas flooded. Similar downpours were scattered across SE VA
and this site for the remainder of the day as bands of rain moved far ahead
of the storm's center. In addition, much of the developing rains resulted
from the interaction of the trough just to the west in the mountains and the
impending storm movement from the south. All of this occurred on already
saturated ground from the extreme rainfalls associated with Dennis earlier in
the month. Unlike Dennis, Floyd produced few isolated tornadoes in Virginia
as it made landfall; but there were more reports of them in North Carolina.
Downpours continued on and off through late night Wednesday into early Thursday. Winds began to increase across the local area Thursday morning as the diminishing Floyd moved to near Endenton, NC then north-northeast to just east of this station as it exited the coast near Cape Henry in northern Virginia Beach.
The lowest observed barometric pressure at this site was 28.988" near noon. Winds increased accordingly and began severe gusting as the center of the storm moved to the northeast with reversed direction SW, W and NW winds gusting to 60 MPH at 12:20 PM. Our max sustained wind speed was 35 MPH from the WNW at about the same time as the max wind gust. At that time, rainfall dropped off dramatically and ended by 1:30 PM.
The remainder of the day brought continued gusty W and NW winds under cloudy skies. The western horizon showed clearing at 8 PM. Evening winds continued to fall off with temps dropping to the lower 60s by midnight.
Other Hurricane Floyd impacts on local rainfall records:
For the month... the 10.12" of rain from Floyd added to the nearly 11" of rain from Dennis (two visits) pushed the monthly rain totals to 21.11", by far the wettest month ever in Portsmouth since records began in 1976, far exceeding the the previous record 15.06" in August of 1992. This months's rainfall is also the greatest monthly total aqueous rainfall ever observed locally by station personnel, since 1963.
For the year... 60.89" of rain was recorded through September 16, 1999. This is a whopping 24.50" above the normal September precip or 167% of the norm.
Note: File extends beyond right margin on smaller screens.
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TH Temp Wind Hi Low Hum Dew Wind Temp Hum Arc
Date Time Index Out Chill Temp Temp Out Pt. Speed Hi Dir Rain Barom In In Per
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9/15/99 12:00a 80.0 75.6 75.6 75.7 75.4 93 73.4 4.0 11.0 NNE 0.00 30.020 75.5 58 60
9/15/99 1:00a 80.0 75.5 75.5 75.7 75.4 94 73.7 5.0 11.0 NNE 0.01 30.009 75.6 59 60
9/15/99 2:00a 78.4 75.3 75.3 75.4 75.2 94 73.5 4.0 11.0 NNE 0.00 29.997 75.6 59 60
9/15/99 3:00a 78.4 75.3 75.3 75.4 75.2 94 73.5 5.0 12.0 NNE 0.00 29.978 75.5 60 60
9/15/99 4:00a 80.0 75.6 75.6 75.8 75.4 95 74.1 4.0 15.0 NNE 0.00 29.960 75.5 60 60
9/15/99 5:00a 80.0 75.9 75.9 76.0 75.8 95 74.4 4.0 11.0 NNE 0.00 29.949 75.4 60 60
9/15/99 6:00a 80.0 76.1 -- 76.2 76.0 95 74.6 4.0 10.0 NNE 0.03 29.953 75.5 60 60
9/15/99 7:00a 80.0 75.8 75.8 76.2 74.8 95 74.3 4.0 11.0 NNE 0.17 29.967 77.1 58 60
9/15/99 8:00a 76.8 74.0 74.0 74.9 72.3 94 72.2 4.0 7.0 NNE 0.01 29.970 76.8 58 60
9/15/99 9:00a 74.8 72.0 72.0 72.4 71.1 94 70.2 5.0 15.0 N 0.01 29.960 75.9 59 60
9/15/99 10:00a 75.0 72.0 72.0 72.9 71.1 95 70.5 5.0 12.0 N 0.00 29.954 75.0 60 60
9/15/99 11:00a 76.2 73.0 73.0 73.1 72.9 96 71.8 6.0 13.0 N 0.10 29.941 74.8 60 60
9/15/99 12:00p 76.4 73.1 73.1 73.3 72.8 97 72.2 7.0 14.0 NNE 0.34 29.929 74.6 61 60
9/15/99 1:00p 76.6 72.8 72.8 72.9 72.6 98 72.2 4.0 11.0 N 0.78 29.924 74.5 61 60
9/15/99 2:00p 76.6 73.4 73.4 73.7 72.9 98 72.8 4.0 10.0 NNE 0.13 29.906 74.6 62 60
9/15/99 3:00p 77.6 73.7 73.7 73.9 73.6 98 73.1 5.0 11.0 NNE 0.18 29.880 74.5 62 60
9/15/99 4:00p 77.4 74.0 74.0 74.1 73.9 97 73.1 6.0 12.0 NNE 0.04 29.854 74.4 62 60
9/15/99 5:00p 77.6 74.0 -- 74.1 74.0 98 73.4 6.0 15.0 NNE 0.45 29.843 74.5 63 60
9/15/99 6:00p 76.6 72.9 72.9 74.1 71.9 98 72.3 7.0 16.0 N 0.14 29.826 76.1 61 60
9/15/99 7:00p 76.6 72.9 72.9 73.2 72.5 98 72.3 7.0 20.0 N 0.78 29.820 75.4 62 60
9/15/99 8:00p 75.8 72.2 72.2 72.5 71.7 99 71.9 7.0 19.0 NNE 0.76 29.790 75.3 62 60
9/15/99 9:00p 75.8 71.8 70.7 71.9 71.6 99 71.5 10.0 20.0 N 0.49 29.768 76.2 61 60
9/15/99 10:00p 75.8 72.0 70.9 72.4 71.7 99 71.7 10.0 22.0 N 1.28 29.718 76.3 62 60
9/15/99 11:00p 76.8 73.3 72.3 74.2 72.4 99 73.0 10.0 23.0 NNE 0.72 29.669 76.3 62 60
9/15/99 11:59p 78.9 74.9 -- 75.4 74.1 99 74.6 10.0 24.0 NE 0.58 29.605 76.6 62 60
9/16/99 1:00a 80.0 75.7 75.7 76.0 75.4 99 75.4 7.0 28.0 NE 0.80 29.569 76.8 62 60
9/16/99 2:00a 80.0 76.0 76.0 76.2 75.9 100 76.0 6.0 21.0 SE 0.87 29.549 76.0 63 60
9/16/99 3:00a 80.0 76.1 76.1 76.3 76.0 99 75.8 5.0 15.0 SE 0.01 29.501 75.6 64 60
9/16/99 4:00a 80.0 76.3 76.3 76.5 76.0 99 76.0 6.0 18.0 SE 0.01 29.441 75.4 64 60
9/16/99 5:00a 81.9 76.5 76.5 76.6 76.4 99 76.2 6.0 16.0 SE 0.01 29.394 75.3 65 60
9/16/99 6:00a 81.9 76.5 76.5 76.6 76.5 99 76.2 6.0 24.0 NE 0.01 29.328 75.2 64 60
9/16/99 7:00a 80.0 76.3 -- 76.5 76.1 99 76.0 6.0 23.0 NE 0.15 29.252 75.2 65 60
9/16/99 8:00a 80.0 75.8 75.8 76.1 75.4 99 75.5 6.0 24.0 ENE 0.10 29.198 76.6 63 60
9/16/99 9:00a 78.9 74.9 74.9 75.4 74.6 99 74.6 6.0 25.0 SE 0.05 29.101 77.3 64 60
9/16/99 10:00a 78.9 74.5 -- 74.6 74.3 99 74.2 7.0 33.0 NE 0.11 28.988 76.8 64 60
9/17/99 12:00p 67.0 67.0 67.0 67.9 66.3 65 54.9 6.0 16.0 N 0.00 30.070 74.4 50 60
9/17/99 1:00p 69.0 68.6 68.6 69.2 67.9 64 56.0 6.0 16.0 N 0.00 30.067 75.1 50 60
9/17/99 2:00p 70.0 70.0 70.0 70.8 69.1 60 55.5 5.0 13.0 N 0.00 30.058 76.0 50 60
9/17/99 3:00p 70.2 71.3 71.3 71.7 70.7 56 54.8 6.0 15.0 NNE 0.00 30.055 78.4 47 60
9/17/99 4:00p 71.9 72.4 72.4 72.9 71.7 59 57.3 5.0 13.0 N 0.00 30.053 80.7 45 60
9/17/99 5:00p 73.0 73.0 73.0 73.2 72.9 56 56.4 5.0 13.0 NNE 0.00 30.055 80.9 44 60
9/17/99 6:00p 73.0 72.9 72.9 73.0 72.6 58 57.3 5.0 14.0 N 0.00 30.063 81.4 44 60
9/17/99 7:00p 72.0 72.1 72.1 72.6 71.6 60 57.5 4.0 11.0 NNW 0.00 30.080 81.1 46 60
9/17/99 8:00p 69.2 69.4 69.4 71.6 67.3 71 59.6 0.0 0.0 --- 0.00 30.092 81.0 48 60
9/17/99 9:00p 66.0 66.0 66.0 67.3 65.0 79 59.3 0.0 5.0 NNW 0.00 30.105 80.2 49 60
9/17/99 10:00p 64.2 64.2 64.2 65.0 63.6 81 58.3 0.0 0.0 --- 0.00 30.116 79.0 50 60
9/17/99 11:00p 63.0 63.0 63.0 63.6 62.3 84 58.1 0.0 0.0 --- 0.00 30.116 77.9 51 60
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TH Temp Wind Hi Low Hum Dew Wind Temp Hum Arc
Date Time Index Out Chill Temp Temp Out Pt. Speed Hi Dir Rain Barom In In Per
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