Tropical Storm Fay (2008) in Melbourne

Tropical Storm Fay was an August 2008 storm that stalled off the Brevard coast and left 27.65 inches of rain 8 miles northwest of Melbourne.

The National Weather Service office in Melbourne lists that peak gauge reading for the event window of August 18 to August 23, 2008, and on preliminary data called Fay by far the wettest tropical cyclone for east central Florida. The forecast office that measured it stands at 421 Croton Road in Melbourne.

Fay never became a hurricane. The National Hurricane Center report on the storm, dated February 8, 2009, puts its peak intensity at 60 knots around 1800 UTC on August 19, when the center was near the western end of Lake Okeechobee, and says wind damage in Florida was confined mostly to downed trees and power lines plus minor roof damage. Around Melbourne the damage came from water: the NWS Melbourne post storm report says water entered hundreds of homes and roadway flooding was extensive.

The Melbourne record of the storm rests on official documents: the forecast office's own gauge and its post tropical cyclone report, updated September 2, 2008, the National Hurricane Center report, a NOAA Weather Prediction Center rainfall summary and the FEMA disaster file for DR-1785.

Fay stalled near Melbourne because steering currents weakened over Florida, slowing the storm to 3 to 4 knots as it skirted the coast near Cape Canaveral.

According to the NOAA Weather Prediction Center, Fay was named on August 15, 2008, crossed southern Hispaniola and central Cuba, strengthened while passing over Key West on the 18th and struck Cape Romano in southwest Florida as a moderate tropical storm. Instead of weakening after landfall, its structure improved and it formed an eye feature, and it then moved north-northeast across central Florida toward the Brevard coast near Melbourne.

The two NOAA summaries date the move offshore differently. The Weather Prediction Center says Fay moved offshore near Melbourne on the 19th, then stalled, dropping heavy rains for a prolonged period along the coast of east-central Florida. The National Hurricane Center report says Fay steadily weakened after 0212 UTC on August 20 until the center reached the Atlantic waters off the east-central Florida coast late that day, and that on August 21 a broad mid-level trough eroded the subtropical ridge, turning Fay northward at 3 to 4 knots. That slow motion let heavy rain bands train across the same areas for hours, which the hurricane center links to rainfall above 20 inches in Brevard County.

The Melbourne ASOS station, KMLB, logged a minimum pressure of 993.2 millibars at 0641 UTC on August 20 and a peak gust of 45 knots, figures that the NWS Melbourne report records alongside the rainfall. The hurricane center report lists the third Florida landfall near Flagler Beach at about 1900 UTC on August 21 and the fourth and final Florida landfall just southwest of Carrabelle on August 23, part of a record four Florida landfalls, by which time the rainfall totals around Melbourne were already complete.

Selected gauges around Melbourne recorded between 13.59 and 27.65 inches of rain from Fay, with the largest totals on the north and west sides of the city.

The NWS Melbourne storm total table, which runs from 0400 UTC August 18 to 0400 UTC August 23, 2008, shows how sharply the rain concentrated northwest of Melbourne. The 27.65 inch report came from a home rain gauge labeled 8 NW Melbourne, which the National Hurricane Center table lists as Melbourne 8 NW, Windover Farms. Nearby gauges read 21.88 inches 6 NW Melbourne and 20.50 inches 7 NW Melbourne.

The two federal reports do not agree on the forecast office gauge. The NWS Melbourne table lists 19.08 inches for station MLBF1, while the National Hurricane Center table lists 19.62 inches for Melbourne WFO; both are official, and the difference is left as published. The NWS report adds that most of the rain fell in less than 48 hours, and the hurricane center report states that Melbourne broke a 50-year old record for a rainfall event.

Totals fell off toward the south and east of Melbourne. Indialantic on the barrier island recorded 17.40 inches, a station 3 miles south southeast of Melbourne Beach recorded 15.98 inches, and the Palm Bay cooperative gauge recorded 13.59 inches, according to the NWS Melbourne table.

Fay affected Melbourne from August 18 to August 23, 2008, with landfall in southwest Florida on the 19th, the strongest local winds on the 20th and the final Florida landfall on the 23rd.

On August 18 the NWS Melbourne rainfall window opened at 0400 UTC, and the hurricane center report places a landfall near Key West at 2030 UTC that day. On August 19 Fay came ashore just east of Cape Romano at 0845 UTC with 55 knot winds, reached its 60 knot peak near Lake Okeechobee around 1800 UTC, and spun up an EF1 tornado at Barefoot Bay in Brevard County at 1745 UTC, according to the NWS Melbourne tornado table.

August 20 brought the strongest readings at Melbourne. The NWS Melbourne report lists the KMLB minimum pressure of 993.2 millibars and the 45 knot gust at 0641 UTC, and a maximum sustained wind of 36 knots at 2020 UTC. At Port Canaveral, north of Melbourne, the official tide gauge recorded a 2.00 foot surge and a 3.10 foot storm tide at 0630 UTC, with minor beach erosion.

Fay moved back ashore near Flagler Beach at about 1900 UTC on August 21, and the NWS rainfall window closed at 0400 UTC on August 23, the same day as the Carrabelle landfall. FEMA declared disaster DR-1785 for Tropical Storm Fay on August 24, 2008, with an incident period of August 18 to September 12, 2008, and the NWS Melbourne post storm report reached its third update on September 2, 2008.

Brevard County officials put preliminary property damage from Fay at approximately 60 million dollars, with 1,600 homes damaged by flooding, according to NWS Melbourne.

The NWS Melbourne storm impacts table, updated September 2, 2008, says that assessment covered homes and businesses in 15 municipalities and unincorporated Brevard, with another 10 million dollars of damage to public infrastructure. The same table lists 0 deaths and 2 injuries in Brevard County, along with rough surf and minor beach erosion.

The official reports place the worst flooding differently. NWS Melbourne says rain above 20 inches fell mainly within portions of Melbourne, Cape Canaveral, Cocoa Beach and Satellite Beach, and that severe flooding hit some communities, especially within Brevard County. The National Hurricane Center report says that although flooding was extensive in Brevard County, most of the heavy rain and floods occurred in the western part of the county that is more rural. Both statements are official; the page reports them side by side.

Wind damage in Brevard came mostly from one tornado. On August 19 an EF1 tornado struck the manufactured home community of Barefoot Bay, where NWS Melbourne reports it damaged 59 residences and left 9 uninhabitable, with two minor injuries. The NWS table places Barefoot Bay at latitude 27.88, south of the Melbourne office at 28.11.

Statewide, the hurricane center report counts more than 15,000 Florida homes flooded, more than 93,000 homes that lost electricity, 5 direct deaths in Florida and $195 million in insured damage in the state. FEMA's DR-1785 file, last updated December 20, 2022, lists 5,383 individual assistance applications approved, $19,216,129.55 in individual and household assistance and $97,159,041.03 in public assistance grants statewide; it does not break out a Melbourne or Brevard figure.

Fay's record rain fell over the upper St. Johns River basin west of Melbourne, so river levels kept rising after street flooding had receded.

The NWS Melbourne report states that the record rainfall maxima occurred over the upper portion of the St. Johns River basin, and that river levels continued to rise even though freshwater flooding had receded in most areas. At the time of the September 2, 2008 update, moderate river flooding was affecting Astor, and moderate to major flooding was occurring or forecast at DeLand, Sanford and Geneva, with flood waters entering many homes along the river. The office also produced an aerial survey of the long term St. Johns flooding.

Other Brevard gauges near Melbourne also passed 20 inches in the NWS Melbourne table, including 21.42 inches 1.4 miles west of Palm Shores, 20.80 inches 4.3 miles north northwest of Palm Shores, 22.87 inches 2 miles north of Satellite Beach and 25.01 inches at a USAF field mill site 5 miles northeast of Cape Canaveral.

The City of Melbourne's current Hurricane Preparation page carries the drainage lesson forward without naming Fay. It warns that trash and yard debris can get caught in storm drains and canals and increase the potential for flooding, and asks residents never to stack tree trimmings, yard debris or trash on top of a stormwater inlet. The city lists hurricane season as June 1 through November 30.

Fay set the regional tropical rainfall record for east central Florida in 2008, beating the 15.44 inches Hurricane King left in 1950, according to NWS Melbourne.

Before 2008, the regional tropical rainfall record belonged to Hurricane King, which in 1950 dropped 15.44 inches on Patrick Air Force Base near Cape Canaveral, according to the NWS Melbourne storm page. Fay beat that mark by more than 12 inches at the gauge northwest of Melbourne. Hurricane Wilma of 2005 holds third place in the regional list with 13.26 inches at Kennedy Space Center.

Statewide, the NWS Melbourne storm page called Fay, on preliminary data, the 4th wettest tropical cyclone to affect Florida and by far the wettest for east central Florida; the forecast office's own post storm report text ranked it third. The same page lists Easy in 1950, with 38.70 inches at Yankeetown, at the top of its Florida list, and Georges in 1998, with 38.46 inches at Munson, second.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, against the NWS Melbourne Fay storm survey, the National Hurricane Center Tropical Cyclone Report, the NOAA Weather Prediction Center rainfall summary, FEMA's DR-1785 page and the City of Melbourne Hurricane Preparation page; news reports from 2008 to 2017 were removed as sole sources.