Storm surge from Hurricane Irma along the Florida Peninsula

Hurricane Irma impacted the entire Florida peninsula in September 2017. The combination of Irma's strength, size, and track provided a unique opportunity to study hurricane effects on storm surge on both sides of a peninsula. Storm surge characteristics on the west coast of Florida were markedly different from those on the east coast. On the west coast, the maximum storm surge was 1.6 m at Naples, which was attributed to onshore winds and an atmospheric pressure of 970 hPa. A stunning negative surge of -2.7 m appeared at Cedar Key, in the peninsula's northwestern quarter, after similar to 10 h of oblique offshore and divergent winds. On the east coast, the maximum surge was 2.4 m at Fernandina Beach, where wind velocity displayed horizontal convergence. A revealing finding of this investigation was that wind divergence is an essential component for predicting storm surge.