Hi all,

August 5th was a couple days after Hurricane Isaias made landfall and tracked across the Neuse River watershed.  On August 5th, stratification was much weaker than two week’s prior. It appears that the major impact of Isaias was wind mixing. Hypoxic/ anoxic bottom waters were not observed. There wasn’t a lot of precipitation associated with Isaias and that’s reflected in the moderate salinity levels and the salt wedge extending upstream all the way to New Bern. There were moderate intensity (chl a ~30 ug/L) subsurface peaks in chlorophyll a at stations 60 and 120.

Since, August 5th the Neuse flow has steadily increased to near flood stages. Part of this may be due to Isaias but most is likely due to a rash of high precip. thunderstorms centered over the upper Neuse basin. We’ll see how the estuary responds to the flow increase during the next sampling.

Stay well,

Nathan