HurricaneTracker.ai

    2026 Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30.

    Jacksonville Hurricane Tracker

    Jacksonville has not taken a direct hurricane landfall since Dora in 1964 and has been flooded by three hurricanes since 2016 anyway. The reason is the St. Johns River: it flows north, it is tidal all the way to Palatka, and a storm passing offshore or up the peninsula pushes Atlantic water into the mouth at Mayport while rain fills the river from the south. Hurricane Matthew in 2016 passed 40 miles offshore and flooded Jacksonville Beach and St. Augustine. Hurricane Irma in 2017 crossed the state 150 miles to the west and still produced the river's record crest at 5.57 feet at the downtown gauge, flooding Riverside, San Marco, and downtown in the worst flooding the city had seen since 1846. Hurricane Dorian in 2019 triggered another beach evacuation as an offshore storm.

    The First Coast's problem is not wind. It is a slow-moving or offshore storm at high tide with the river already up, and the fact that the beaches from Fernandina to St. Augustine have a handful of bridges back to the mainland. The neighborhoods that flood first are Riverside, Avondale, San Marco, downtown, Jacksonville Beach, and the Black Creek area in Clay County, which flooded catastrophically in Irma. Watch the St. Johns River gauge at Main Street downtown, because that number matters more than the storm's category.

    Radar

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    Composite radar, Jacksonville and the First Coast.

    Evacuation zones for the First Coast

    Duval County uses Zones A through F, with A covering the beaches and the riverfront. St. Johns, Nassau, and Clay counties use lettered zones as well, and Clay's are tied to river flooding rather than ocean surge. Orders come from each county's emergency management agency and are issued zone by zone as a storm approaches.

    Local emergency management, shelters and outages

    Each county's emergency management office posts evacuation orders, shelter openings, and re-entry information. The local National Weather Service forecast office issues watches and warnings, and the JEA and FPL outage maps show real-time power status across the region.

    What Jacksonville should watch for

    The St. Johns River gauge at Main Street downtown is the number that matters more than the storm's category. A storm passing offshore to the east at high tide, as Matthew and Irma were, pushes Atlantic water into the mouth at Mayport while rain fills the river from the south, and the river can keep rising for days after the storm has passed.

    The beach bridges are the choke points. The Beach Boulevard, Atlantic Boulevard, Wonderwood, and JTB bridges to the beaches, the Vilano and Bridge of Lions in St. Augustine, and the A1A bridges in Nassau all close at sustained winds around 40 mph. If you are on the beach side and wait for the order, you may not be able to get back to the mainland.

    The neighborhoods that flood first are Riverside, Avondale, San Marco, downtown, Jacksonville Beach, Vilano Beach, and the Black Creek area in Clay County, which flooded catastrophically in Irma. If you live or stay in any of these, treat a Zone A order as non-negotiable, and do not wait for the water to start rising before you leave.

    Mayport and Naval Station Jacksonville move ships and personnel days early when a storm threatens, and their evacuation orders are a useful signal that the risk is real even before the county issues a civilian order. Expect power outages of a week or more in the hardest-hit areas after a direct hit, and stock water, food, and fuel for at least seven days.

    Frequently asked questions

    Is Jacksonville in an evacuation zone?

    The beaches, the river banks, and low-lying neighborhoods like Riverside, San Marco, and downtown are in the first zones ordered out. Duval County uses Zones A through F, with A covering the beaches and the riverfront. Use the JaxReady address search above to look up your exact zone, because evacuation orders come by zone letter, not by city or hurricane category.

    Where are the shelters in Jacksonville?

    JaxReady posts live shelter status on its shelters page and opens them on a storm-by-storm basis, showing only the ones currently open. St. Johns County publishes a standing list of hurricane evacuation shelters. Nassau and Clay counties list shelters through their emergency management pages. Pet-friendly shelters have limited space that requires advance registration and proof of vaccinations.

    When was the last hurricane to hit Jacksonville?

    Hurricane Irma in September 2017 caused the worst flooding in the city's modern history without a direct landfall, by pushing the St. Johns River to its record crest. Hurricane Dorian in 2019 and Hurricane Ian in 2022 both triggered beach evacuations as offshore storms. The last direct hurricane landfall on the First Coast was Dora in 1964. No storm made landfall in Florida in 2025.

    How high did the St. Johns River get in Irma?

    The St. Johns River crested at 5.57 feet at the Main Street downtown gauge on September 11, 2017, the highest on record, flooding Riverside, Avondale, San Marco, and downtown in the worst flooding the city had seen since 1846. Irma had crossed the state roughly 150 miles to the west, which shows how little a direct landfall matters to Jacksonville compared with the river and tide.

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