August was the third wettest on record at Tampa International Airport, mainly due to extremely heavy rain on Aug. 1 and Aug. 3.
The average temperature was just 0.1 degree above normal.
Total rainfall was 16.47” which is 8.70” above normal. More than half of the total fell in the first three days.
This is also the third wettest August on record, the wettest was 18.59” in 1949 followed by 17.83” in 1898. This was the wettest August since 2003.
With the end of August comes the end of “Meteorological Summer” of June/July/August. This was the 5th wettest summer on record in Tampa with 34.55” of rain. The wettest summer ever was in 1945 with 43.03” in those three months, but 2012 was the second wettest summer with 36.13”.
This has also been a very wet year. Total rainfall so far has been 55.43” which is 21.71” above normal. With a strong El Nino in the Pacific, the outlook is for above normal rainfall for the rest of the year.
As you can see below, most of the other airport climate sites were just a little above normal for the month, other than Sarasota/Bradenton which was much below normal.
The other amazing thing about the high monthly total at Tampa - it was without a significant tropical system such as a hurricane or tropical storm.
Other rainfall totals for August:
- St. Petersburg Albert Whitted 11.48” (3.10” above normal)
- St. Petersburg BN9 Studio 12.73”
- Sarasota/Bradenton Airport 4.47” (-4.67 below normal)
- Lakeland 12.33” (3.73” above normal)
- Ruskin NWS 10.49”
- Bradenton 8.80” (1.01 above normal)
- Inverness 6.63” (1.29 below normal)
- Plant City 11.43” (3.12 above normal)
- Lake Wales 10.15” (3.10 above normal)