Wet N' Wild Wednesday...Wednesday, July 1st was surely a day for the weather record books for the Tampa Bay area. I was awoken around 6:30 on the morning of July 1st, 2009 to the rumbling of thunder and the rattling of my windows. I then noticed lightning flashing outside with skies beginning to lighten just enough to let me know it was morning. Shortly after waking up, my cell phone rang and the weather radio was blaring.
"Tornado warning for Hillsborough County." National Weather Service Doppler Radar indicated that shortly before 8 am, a tornado was in the vicinity of Bloomingdale, Riverview, Valrico and Lithia. These locations are within 2 miles from my location at the South Oak Weather Center. Pretty scary for a true wake-up call. I noticed that initially, the weather recording instruments at the weather center weren't recording properly. I couldn't get to the weather center to fix the instruments until the weather let up a little bit around 10:30 am.
Too much deadly, cloud to ground lightning, rainfall at easily 2-3 inches per hour, and of course, the reported tornado nearby. We received over 3.75 inches of rainfall locally at the South Oak Weather Center. Other areas in Brandon saw 5 or more inches of rain. Other locations in the Tampa Bay area saw 6, 7, even 8 inches of rainfall. Unfortunately, the Thursday forecast calls for more coastal showers and thunderstorms to get fired up again in the early morning hours as they did on Wednesday morning. Tropical moisture will continue to be funneled into the area from the Gulf of Mexico. The best rain chances on Thursday will be from the Bay area southward through Manatee, Sarasota, and Charlotte Counties. Expect coastal showers and storms at anytime on Thursday. For more stay with your local media outlets, the National Weather Service, and of course...the South Oak Weather Center.
Stay safe and dry on Thursday.
Mike Cooley - KJ4HVB
South Oak Weather Center Owner and Amateur Radio Operator