Hurricane Idalia

[GaWx]

6 hours ago, traindog71 said:

Most record surge is measured over MHHW, not just over the expected tide at a given time.


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 I'm trying to understand the terminology better. At 12:12Z on 8/30, the linked graph for Tampa shows a 6.64 foot tide (red line) that appears to be using MLLW as a reference. It also shows a 1.433 predicted (blue line, which is the astronomical) tide then. In addition, when one clicks on "observed - predicted", it then displays a purple line that was at its max of 5.21 feet at 12:12Z. That's 6.64 ft minus 1.433 ft.

 So, that appears to be the maximum extra water level caused by the storm. Are you saying that the maximum "observed - predicted" is not the storm surge? If not, what is that called?

https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/waterlevels.html?id=8726607&bdate=20230829&edate=20230831&units=standard&timezone=GMT&interval=6

[CoastalWx]

5 hours ago, NorthHillsWx said:

Where is the damage? Usually there are picture’s everywhere. Other than a few micro communities and Perry I do not see where this value comes from. In NC where I live there was some flooding down east but nothing you wouldn’t expect from any tropical system. Maybe crop damage jacked it up? I just do not see 20 billion in damage from anything I’ve seen so far 

A lot of it probably is from water. Either freshwater or salt water. It's pretty easy to rack up large losses these days with the price of real estate.

[LongBeachSurfFreak]

47 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

A lot of it probably is from water. Either freshwater or salt water. It's pretty easy to rack up large losses there days with the price of real estate.

I agree. Surge flooding in places like the Tampa area. Not news worthy because who cares if someone got 6” of water in their house but, for that owner that could mean 10,000%+ of ripping out carpets/floors. We have seen it so many times on the south shore of Long Island. (Not mentioning the S word) 

[NorthHillsWx]

7 hours ago, CoastalWx said:

A lot of it probably is from water. Either freshwater or salt water. It's pretty easy to rack up large losses these days with the price of real estate.

I know I just have friends in Tampa and work for the utility company that covers NC, SC, and Fl. It was extremely underwhelming for us (good thing) but 20 billion is extreme and there didn’t seem to be extreme damage but in areas no one lived. My point I guess is if this is the case a cat 1 hitting Tampa would also be a 20 billion $ disaster 

[NorthHillsWx]

As expected, loss estimates from Idalia have come way down. While some early estimates placed damage at nearly 20 billion, estimates have fallen to a more paltry number of 3-5 billion

https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/private-market-insured-losses-hurricane-idalia-be-3-5-bln-moodys-rms-2023-09-04/