Hurricane history in South Brevard, Florida

Since 2004, NWS Melbourne post-storm reports carry South Brevard readings for Charley, Frances, Jeanne, Wilma, Fay, Matthew, Irma, Dorian, Ian and Nicole, and FEMA lists Brevard County in 16 major disaster declarations it classes as hurricane or tropical storm incidents since 1995.

The table lists the strongest reading each report gives for Palm Bay, Malabar, Grant-Valkaria, Micco or Barefoot Bay, with the federal major disaster declaration that named Brevard County. Wind figures are in knots, as the reports give them, and the reports are preliminary storm summaries from the NWS Melbourne office, not final climate records.

Older storms reached the area as well. FEMA lists Brevard County in declarations for Hurricane Erin in 1995 and Hurricanes Floyd and Irene in 1999, and, after 2022, for Idalia in 2023, Debby in 2024 and Milton in 2024 (OpenFEMA declarations for Brevard County). The NWS Melbourne reports fetched for this page give no South Brevard station reading for those storms, so they are left out of the table. Fay is the reverse case: FEMA titles Brevard County's DR-1785-FL declaration of August 24, 2008 "Tropical Storm Fay" but classes the incident as a severe storm, so it sits outside the count of 16 (OpenFEMA declarations for Brevard County, 2008).

Tropical Storm Fay in August 2008 is the wettest storm in these NWS Melbourne reports, with 17.82 inches at gauge FL-BV-9, 2.9 miles north-northwest of Malabar and 13.59 inches at the Palm Bay station PLBF1.

The same NWS Melbourne report lists 16.26 inches 4.5 miles northwest of Micco and 13.38 inches 2.6 miles south-southeast of Palm Bay (NWS Melbourne Fay report). Brevard County officials put preliminary property damage at approximately 60 million dollars, in a Brevard entry that lists a tornado, flood damage, rough surf and beach erosion and 1600 homes damaged by flooding.

Irma comes next in these reports. In September 2017 a Palm Bay CoCoRaHS gauge (FL-BV-59) measured 13.23 inches, and the St. Johns River Water Management District gauge at the Palm Bay STP recorded 10.67 inches (NWS Melbourne Irma report). Jeanne's 8.93 inches at the Palm Bay cooperative station in 2004 ranks next (NWS Melbourne Jeanne report), ahead of the 7.27 inches Frances left there three weeks earlier (NWS Melbourne Frances report).

The other storms brought less. Ian in 2022 left 6.62 inches 3 miles west of Palm Bay and 5.56 inches at Barefoot Bay (NWS Melbourne Ian report), Matthew in 2016 left 5.74 inches at a Palm Bay CoCoRaHS gauge (NWS Melbourne Matthew report), Wilma in 2005 left 5.47 inches at the Palm Bay cooperative station (NWS Melbourne Wilma report), and Charley in August 2004 left just 1.27 inches there (NWS Melbourne Charley report).

Tropical systems have produced tornadoes in Barefoot Bay in 1994, 2004 and 2008, in Palm Bay in 2005 and in Palm Bay Estates in 2017, according to NWS Melbourne storm records.

Barefoot Bay has the longest list. The NWS Melbourne hazardous weather history records a waterspout and tornado on the outer fringes of Tropical Storm Gordon striking the Barefoot Bay area of southern Brevard County on November 15, 1994 (NWS Melbourne November history, page 3). Ten years later the Jeanne aerial surveys found two clear tornado tracks over Barefoot Bay (NWS Melbourne Jeanne report). On August 19, 2008, a rain squall from Tropical Storm Fay came onshore and produced an EF1 tornado that struck the manufactured home community, damaging 59 residences, 9 of which were declared uninhabitable (NWS Melbourne Fay report).

The Palm Bay tornadoes came with Wilma and Irma. On October 24, 2005, an F0 tornado from the same long track mesocyclone that had first touched down north of Sebastian Inlet briefly touched down in Palm Bay, where witnesses saw it strike power transformers, before a third touchdown in West Melbourne (NWS Melbourne Wilma report). On September 10, 2017, the storm survey NWS Melbourne lists as the Turkey Creek tornado found that a waterspout from the Indian River moved onshore as an EF-1 tornado estimated at 100 to 110 mph, crossed US-1 and hit more than a dozen mobile homes in Palm Bay Estates before continuing west just north of Turkey Creek (NWS Melbourne Irma report).

The strongest storm wind these reports list for Palm Bay, Malabar or Grant is 74 knots at the Palm Bay cooperative station in Jeanne in 2004, ahead of 68 knots there in Wilma in 2005 and 63 at Malabar in Matthew in 2016.

The NWS Melbourne Wilma report lists a 68 knot peak at the Palm Bay cooperative station at 1602 UTC on October 24, 2005, a 67 knot peak at NWS Melbourne five minutes later and a Palm Bay station pressure of 991.5 millibars (NWS Melbourne Wilma report).

The newer reports add WeatherFlow sites at Malabar and Grant. Matthew's gust at the Malabar (Rocky Point) WeatherFlow station reached 63 knots at 0648 UTC on October 7, 2016, with a 52 knot sustained wind (NWS Melbourne Matthew report). Nicole's gust there reached 61 knots on November 10, 2022 (NWS Melbourne Nicole report). The station listed as near Grant-Valkaria gusted to 58 knots in Irma (NWS Melbourne Irma report), the Grant station to 57 knots in Ian, when the Rocky Point station at Malabar reached 62 (NWS Melbourne Ian report), and Grant to 53 knots in Dorian (NWS Melbourne Dorian report).

Charley left the weakest wind reading in these reports. In August 2004 the highest gust at Melbourne International Airport was 39 knots at 0222 UTC on August 14 (NWS Melbourne Charley report).

In 2004 Charley, Frances and Jeanne all hit Palm Bay between August 13 and September 26, and FEMA named Brevard County in four major disaster declarations that season.

The four declarations that covered Palm Bay and the rest of the county were DR-1539-FL for Tropical Storm Bonnie and Hurricane Charley on August 13, DR-1545-FL for Frances on September 4, DR-1551-FL for Ivan on September 16 and DR-1561-FL for Jeanne on September 26, 2004 (OpenFEMA declarations for Brevard County). The Ivan declaration for Brevard opened the individuals and households program without public assistance.

The City of Palm Bay's history timeline sums up the year: Hurricanes Charley, Frances and Jeanne impact the city with $13 million dollars in damage and debris cleanup (City of Palm Bay history). For Brevard County, NWS Melbourne recorded a preliminary $320.4 million in Jeanne damage, the largest Brevard damage figure quoted on this page (NWS Melbourne Jeanne report).

Irma in 2017 left Brevard County, home of Palm Bay and Barefoot Bay, with a preliminary report of over 7,132 homes damaged, 400 of them with major damage and 45 destroyed.

The Irma report gives an initial Brevard property damage estimate of $30.0 million and notes that Florida Power and Light reported 100 percent of its Brevard County customers lost power during the hurricane (NWS Melbourne Irma report). For Matthew a year earlier, the Brevard entry describes coastal damage: NWS Melbourne estimated storm surge flooding of 3 to 4 feet above ground level along the immediate shoreline, with major beach erosion and dune escarpment (NWS Melbourne Matthew report).

On the lagoon side, Dorian's rises in 2019 were smaller: storm surge and water level rises within the Indian River Lagoon system were both near 2 feet above ground level, except 2 to 3 feet north of Cape Canaveral (NWS Melbourne Dorian report). For Ian in 2022, Brevard reported total damage to area beaches, primarily dunes and crossovers, of $7 million and no storm-related deaths (NWS Melbourne Ian report).

Nicole followed six weeks after Ian. The Brevard entry in the Nicole report lists 35 structures affected, 62 with minor damage, 8 with major damage and 2 destroyed, and major coastal erosion throughout the county (NWS Melbourne Nicole report); the highest Palm Bay rain total in the same report was 4.54 inches, 2 miles west of the city.

FEMA records 16 major disaster declarations classed as hurricane or tropical storm incidents that named Brevard County, which covers Palm Bay, Malabar, Grant-Valkaria, Micco and Barefoot Bay, from Hurricane Erin in 1995 to Hurricane Milton in 2024.

For the county that holds Palm Bay and Malabar, the OpenFEMA declarations summary for Brevard (County) lists DR-1062-FL for Erin on August 10, 1995, DR-1300-FL for Floyd in 1999, DR-1306-FL for Irene in 1999, the four 2004 declarations, DR-1609-FL for Wilma in 2005, DR-4283-FL for Matthew in 2016, DR-4337-FL for Irma on September 10, 2017, DR-4468-FL for Dorian on October 21, 2019, DR-4673-FL for Ian and DR-4680-FL for Nicole in 2022, DR-4734-FL for Idalia in 2023, and DR-4806-FL for Debby and DR-4834-FL for Milton in 2024 (OpenFEMA declarations for Brevard County).

Not every declaration included help for households in Palm Bay, Malabar or Barefoot Bay. For Brevard County, Erin, Floyd, Irene, Dorian, Idalia and Debby were declared for public assistance without the individuals and households program, while Charley, Frances, Ivan, Jeanne, Wilma, Matthew, Irma, Ian, Nicole and Milton included it (OpenFEMA declarations for Brevard County).

Fay's DR-1785-FL, classed as a severe storm, also included the individuals and households program for Brevard County, the home county of Palm Bay and Barefoot Bay (OpenFEMA declarations for Brevard County, 2008). Last verified: October 18, 2026, on the NWS Melbourne post-storm reports and the OpenFEMA declarations data.