MODIS imagery from NASA's Terra satellite of Hurricane Matthew approaching the eastern coast of Florida on 7 October.  Courtesy:  NASA

The center of Hurricane Matthew tracked just east of Florida's Atlantic coast on 7 October.  It did so after quite a spectacular history in the Caribbean Sea.  An easterly wave exited western Africa around 22 September, after which it moved just south of Cape Verde.  By the time it approached the Lesser Antilles, thunderstorm activity had developed.  Passing by Barbados, it was christened as Tropical Storm Matthew on the 28th.  Thereafter, steered due westward by strong ridging to the north, Matthew entered the Caribbean Sea and encountered very warm waters and a marginal wind shear environment.  On the 29th, Matthew strengthened into a Category One hurricane.  Despite the presence of northwesterly wind shear, the storm underwent explosive development and rose to Category Five strength by the afternoon of the 30th at a latitude of 13.3 degrees north of the Equator, making it the strongest hurricane on record at such a low latitude.  Matthew also maintained Category Four or Five strength for the longest duration of any hurricane in the eastern Caribbean Sea on record.  Slowing down and weakening slightly to Category Four strength, Matthew eventually turned northward and accelerated on the 2nd.  On the morning of the 4th, it made landfall on Haiti at Category Four strength, making it the strongest hurricane to make landfall on the nation since Hurricane Cleo in 1964.  That evening, it made landfall on eastern Cuba.  Although the mountains of the Cuba disrupted the structure of the storm, Matthew was able to re-strengthen to Category Four strength between Cuba and the Bahamas.   The storm then crossed the Bahamas -- making it the only storm on record to make landfall on Haiti, Cuba, and the Bahamas as a major hurricane (Category Three or greater) -- and approached the eastern coast of Florida in the Melbourne area on the 7th.  Thereafter, it paralleled the coast, with the center of the eye remaining 30 to 40 miles off shore, until it moved into waters off shore of Georgia late on the 7th.  Ultimately, having maintained Category Three strength or greater for 7.25 days, Matthew was the only hurricane on record to have done so in the Atlantic basin after 25 September.   

In Florida, sustained hurricane-strength winds (greater than or equal to 75 miles per hour) were confined to the immediate coast, especially the Space Coast.  Tropical-storm-force winds (40-74 miles per hour) extended inland from Miami northward as far west as the middle of the peninsula.  The highest gust observed was 107 miles per hour at a station on an Air Force tower at Cape Canaveral. 

Rainfall was moderately heavy.  Storm totals were highest in the St. Augustine and Jacksonville areas.  The very highest storm total of 9.97" was registered by a CoCoRaHS observer at St. Augustine 12.2WNW.  The western side of a tropical cyclone tends to be the weaker side, with steep gradients in rainfall totals with distance from the cyclone center, so areas generally west of the spine of the peninsula had comparatively little rain from Matthew. 

Map of rainfall totals for the week ending on the morning of 9 October for the coastal Southeast.  Rainfall from Hurricane Matthew accounts for most of the total.  Courtesy:  NOAA/NWS.

Perhaps the biggest story of Matthew in Florida was the storm surge and beach erosion.  Storm surge reached four to six feet along the First Coast and in Flagler County, among the top two events after a hurricane in 1898, the last major hurricane to pass so close to that coastline.  Beach erosion was severe in many areas, compromising the foundations of buildings and near-coast roadways, such as the A1A.   

Flooding from storm surge at St. Augustine.  Courtesy:  News4JAX.

Damage to the A1A in Flagler Beach from beach erosion because of Hurricane Matthew.  Courtesy:  Miami Herald.