SAVANNAH, Ga. — A coastal trough will keep the Savannah area breezy this weekend while unusually high tides bring a chance of minor to moderate flooding along the coast, with water possibly reaching Highway 80 toward Tybee Island.
Wind gusts topping 25 miles per hour are possible, mostly during the afternoons on Saturday and Sunday. Otherwise the weekend stays mild and dry, with mornings starting in the low 50s and afternoons warming into the low to middle 70s.
The bigger concern is the water. The tide gauge at Fort Pulaski is forecast to climb to about 9.6 feet around 7 a.m. and again near 7 p.m. Saturday, then to roughly 10.1 feet near 8 a.m. Sunday. When that gauge nears the 10-foot mark, water can begin covering Highway 80, the only road to Tybee.
Tides stay elevated into next week, and the Monday morning high tide is expected to be the highest of the stretch, so drivers heading to or from the islands should plan around those morning hours.
A full moon and a steady northeast wind are pushing the water higher than normal, and the low stretch of Highway 80 at risk runs from the Bull River Bridge out to Tybee Island. Gusts at the beaches could reach as high as 40 mph on Tybee by Sunday evening, while the run of dry days in Savannah, now at 12, looks likely to last into next week.
Rip currents are another hazard for anyone visiting the beach, with a northeast wind piling up rough surf offshore.
Flooding from tides, surge and heavy rain is a regular problem for Savannah’s low-lying downtown blocks and the neighborhoods that border the marshes, and king tides have been reaching more of those areas in recent years. Residents in those spots should avoid driving through standing water and move vehicles to higher ground before high tide. Late October also falls inside the final weeks of the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June through November along the Georgia coast.
Filed under: Savannah GA Weather News