October was another month of above-normal rainfall across Central Florida.

  • October in Central Florida saw above-average rainfall
  • Area already reeling from September's Hurricane Irma
  • Melbourne saw one of the top 5 wettest Octobers

We kept a wet pattern with locally heavy rainfall, especially along the coast. There were flooding issues thanks to already soaked ground conditions following a September that was one of the wettest on record because of Hurricane Irma.

For the most part, rainfall totals for October were highest across the coastal counties, with totals ranging between 8 to 15 inches. That put some areas 4 to 8 inches above normal.

Most notable was Melbourne, where rain this October ranked within their respective top-five wettest. Farther inland counties had rainfall totals near normal, ranging from 2 to 4 inches for the month.

We only had one rainfall record. On Oct. 1, Melbourne had a record daily rainfall of 5.23 inches. The previous record was 1.01 inches last set in 1966.

Here are the October 2017 rainfall totals across Central Florida:

  • Orlando had 3.59 inches of rain for the month. That was 0.28 inches above normal.
  • Daytona Beach had 7.79 inches of rain for the month. That was 3.58 inches above normal.
  • Sanford had 4.26 inches of rain for the month. That was 0.59 inches above normal.
  • Melbourne had 13.44 inches of rain for the month. That was 8.38 inches above normal. This ranks as the second wettest October on record, just shy of the all-time record of 13.86 inches set in October 1956.