Over the past seven days we have received about 5.00" of rain (127 mm), which is a good start to ending the years-long drought that has plagued Central Florida. In other parts of Florida too much rain was received too fast and damaging flooding has occurred.
Flood waters are receding in the rain-drenched Florida Panhandle and coastal Alabama today, where colossal rains from a moist, tropical airmass interacting with a stalled cold front brought flooding that caused at least $20 million in damage to the Pensacola, Florida area 450 miles (724 km) to our northwest.
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| Radar estimates of Florida panhandle rainfall June 9-10, 2012. |
The most remarkable rains fell in West Pensacola, where 21.70" (551.18 mm) was recorded over the weekend (radar estimate above). Pensacola airport received 13.13 inches (333.5 mm) of rain on Saturday, the city's second-highest 1-day rainfall total in recorded history. The only greater 1-day rainfall occurred on October 5, 1934, when Tropical Storm Nine brought 15.29" (388.37) of rain to one of Florida's oldest cities.
Satellite loops of atmospheric precipitable water show that this weekend's heavy rains were caused by a flow of very moist tropical air that originated over the warm waters of the tropical Eastern Pacific and flowed northwards across Mexico and Central America to the Panhandle of Florida.
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| After the hard rain. |
This moist airmass has been replaced by relatively dry air over the Gulf of Mexico, which should limit rainfall amounts today to the 1 - 2 inch (25-50 mm) range. A cold front expected to arrive on Tuesday will serve as the focus to bring additional rains of 1 - 2 inches per day to portions of the region Tuesday and Wednesday.
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| Additional precipitation needed to bring conditions back to normal. |
Before this weekend's wild rainstorm, the Florida Panhandle was experiencing severe to extreme drought, with 12 - 15 inches (304-381 mm) of rain needed to pull the region out of drought. This weekend's rains have ended the drought for the extreme western Panhandle of Florida, but surrounding regions of Alabama, Georgia, and Florida still need 10+ inches (254+ mm) of rain to return to normal.
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| The sunflowers have not fared well in this week's rains. They were 8-feet-plus tall, now most of them are laying on the ground or bending and twisting wildly. |
Seabreeze collisions will provide the only rains over the Florida peninsula today. Tomorrow another very unusual cold front will arrive across northern Florida enhancing rain chances through the week and into next weekend.
Central Florida still needs at least 12 inches (305 mm) of rainfall to begin to see normal lake, river, and stream flow conditions return.
