TAMPA, Fla. — The summer has been very wet.

It is hard to believe at the beginning of June we were talking about drought conditions. Excessive rainfall has occurred since.

What You Need To Know

  • June was wet, July was average, and August, in many areas, was excessive

  • There were some unofficial observations with up to 29 inches during August

  • Bay News 9 weather resources 

June was wet, July was average, and August, in many areas, was excessive.

The month began with the tracking of Debby, a tropical storm, that became a Category 1 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico.

As it moved northward just off the west coast, heavy rain was the result for about 2 and half days. Repeated rain bands led to some incredible totals in the areas within a few miles of the coast.

Farther inland, rainfall amounts were not as high.

Following Debby, we went into a normal summer pattern with daily thunderstorms.

Later in the month, Hurricane Ernesto in the Atlantic, dragged dry air over our area and we actually experienced some unusually dry, comfortable air for August. A few mornings had lows in the 60s in Pasco, Hernando, and Citrus counties.

The last week of August, brought us back to a normal, but enhanced summer storm pattern. It was a classic east wind, light enough for the sea breeze to form and days in a row with intense late day storms.

These storms just added to the heavy rain totals already seen earlier in the month.

Average rainfall in a typical August is around 8 to 9 inches. There were some unofficial observations with up to 29 inches during August!

The big winners in the rainfall contest were Tampa and Sarasota. The airport observation locations each had the 2nd wettest August on record.

Sarasota/Bradenton Airport had 23.55 inches of rain. Tampa International saw 17.78 inches of rain.

These images show some other notable August rainfall years.

Other locations around the area also had impressive rain:

  • Plant City had over 14 inches of rain
  • Brooksville and Lakeland each had over 10 inches
  • St. Petersburg official observation site was having technical issues throughout the month so there isn’t an official total. However, an unofficial observation near downtown recorded 20.58 inches during August.

At our Bay News 9 studios in North St Pete, 13.5 inches fell.

Rainfall was really the main notable story in August as temperatures were generally near normal through the month.