Andy_Johnson's Blog

Usually, this time of year we get afternoon and evening thunderstorms. Occassionally, in the summer months the weather pattern is conducive for morning rains than sometimes continue or train into the afternoon. June 21 was one of those days. Tropical moisture coming northward from the Caribbean combined with moisture coming from the north ahead of an unusual front in north Florida. The result was that rain was focused across Central Florida and instead of just moving inland kept redeveloping in the Gulf and moving ashore in the same areas.

Officially, Tampa had a record daily rainfall amount on June 21,2008  of 3.08". The old record was 2.76" set in 1928. This also brings us to an above normal total for the month of June.

The other difference in the rainfall pattern yesterday was that everyone in the entire viewing area got at least some rain. In our "normal" summer pattern the activity is more randomly scattered. One nice effect of the widespread rain is that, in addition to filling the aquifer somewhat temperatures were held down. Instead of reaching our normal high of 89, Tampa only reached 83. This was a nice change from the heat of our long summers.