This Labor Day weekend, between outdoor grilling and turns in the pool, Tampa Bay residents and visitors will likely have to dodge rain.
The National Weather Service expects a blanket of moisture will remain over west central and southwest Florida this weekend into early next week.
Tyler Fleming, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service’s Tampa Bay office, said to expect up to a 60% chance of rain daily through Monday.
“We’ve been in a wet pattern,” Fleming said. “It’s not that unusual for early September, with a lot of tropical moisture over the state.”
Rain is possible at any time of the day, but the best chances near the coast will be in the late morning and early afternoon. In more inland areas, the highest chances will likely be in the late afternoon and evening.
The Weather Prediction Center said all of Florida is under a marginal chance of excessive rainfall through Sunday.
Area-wide, up to an inch and half of rain is possible, Fleming said.
“But any given day, an area might see 2 or 3 inches in one localized spot,” he said.
The weather service is not expecting severe storms, but reminded residents to head inside when thunder rumbles.
Thirteen people have died this year from lightning strikes, according to the National Lightning Safety Council. The latest was 41-year-old man who was killed while riding a personal watercraft at Fort De Soto last weekend. A few days earlier, a woman and her 2-year-old daughter were struck and killed in Broward County.
“If you can hear thunder, go indoors immediately, wait out the lightning,” Fleming said.
Aside from the rain, Tampa Bay can also expect a heaping dose of hot temperatures. Heat indexes across the area over the next several days will largely remain in the triple digits.
Tampa Bay has been in a rainy pattern for the past few days, in part from the remnants of Tropical Storm Dolly, which have boosted moisture across the state.
The consistent rainfall is slowly combatting drought conditions that have plagued Tampa Bay this year.
Weather records from the start of the month through Thursday showed Tampa recorded about three-quarters of an inch of rain. In, St. Petersburg, that total jumped to over 2 inches through Thursday.
Last month, Tampa International Airport logged over 10 inches of rain. At St. Petersburg’s Albert Whitted Airport, about 9 inches of rain fell.
While portions of the area still range from abnormally dry to an extreme drought, the U.S. Drought Monitor showed a one-week improvement.
Pockets of Pinellas, Pasco and Hillsborough improved by one category on the drought map, according to the drought monitor’s latest update.
Fleming said the rainfall is helping, but has not completely eliminated the parched conditions.
“It’s a step in the right direction, but it’s still going to take time,” he said.
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