Wet weather slams Miami region, sloshes Central Florida with needed rain

Fits of mist, drizzle and drumming rainfall, along with dripping humidity, added up to an unlikely soaker on Thursday for Central Florida given that November is its driest month.

Even a visitor from rainy England felt the gloom. “It’s been a bit sad,” said Paul Allen.

In all, it was a varied and concerning day for forecasters across a large chunk of Florida. They watched as a low pressure system spurted quickly from the Miami area, steering northeast into the Atlantic Ocean and whipping up the atmosphere and ocean waters along the state’s coastline as far as Volusia County.

Some South Florida cities had been pummeled during the previous 24 hours with roughly a foot of rain and wind gusts typical of a tropical storm. Through Thursday, storm warnings were in place for the 100-mile swath from Jupiter in north Palm Beach County to Homestead well south of Miami.

Unsettled weather from the low pressure system lashed Stuart and the Treasure Coast with high winds before sunrise Thursday and put Brevard County on edge over high surf, high winds and worries about saltwater flooding at high tide continuing through Friday. Seas offshore were rising to as high as 13 feet.

Heavy rains and strong gusts were predicted initially for much of Central Florida as well. But the region’s inland communities were largely spared from rough weather, though the Orlando International Airport logged a near-record daily total of nearly 3.5 inches as the rain continued heavy into Thursday evening.

Orlando’s record rainfall on Nov. 16 is 3.8 inches in 1994. By late afternoon Thursday, a weather station near downtown had collected less than 1 inch of rain.

On average, the Central Florida region receives slightly more than 2 inches of rain during all of November’s 30 days, a sharp fall off from the annual peak of nearly 8 inches in June.

Orlando had not otherwise seen measurable rain since mid-October prior to this week’s modest but persistent precipitation.

Any rain event during Central Florida’s dry season from late October to late May is often regarded by farmers, river and lake managers and homeowners as a blessing if not crucial.

“We’ve been fairly dry over the last few weeks,” said Cassie Leahy, a National Weather Service forecaster in Melbourne. “Some people might appreciate 1 to 3 inches of rain but there could be heavier showers in areas that cause some localized minor flooding and street flooding.”

The National Weather Service put Central Florida under multiple warnings: storm, flood, gale, high surf, small craft and rip current.

“Entering the dangerous surf is strongly discouraged! Large, breaking waves of 6 to 9 feet are expected in the surf zone,” the weather service said of Central Florida’s Atlantic beaches.

Even as radar showed a mass of chaotic rain bands trekking across the Florida peninsula during much of Thursday, authorities from Sanford to St. Cloud reported that crews were on standby but conditions remained manageable.

Kissimmee officials were briefed by the National Weather Service Melbourne office and were not expecting trouble from predicted rainfall, spokesperson Austin Blake said. Still, city crews checked on storm drains in flood-prone areas to remove debris, he said.

Dry weather in Orlando in recent weeks has kept city lake levels in check, with plenty of capacity for this week’s rain, said Ashley Papagni, a city spokesperson.

“There has not been any flooding to report nor have we received any requests to investigate any flooding,” Papagni said.

By Friday morning, skies should be drying out, though with a possible isolated shower lingering behind, Leahy said.

Saturday and Sunday will be partly sunny to sunny, according to the National Weather Service, with highs in the upper 70s, almost no chance of rain and 50 percent humidity – or nearly half of the 97 percent measured at noon Thursday.

Conditions will dry out considerably through the weekend for South Florida as well, where some drivers found local streets had become rivers by Thursday.

The region was “slammed” with rain and wind by the low-pressure system, which was steered by a weather front stretching from the Gulf across the Florida Straits to the northern Bahamas, according to the U.S. Weather Prediction Center.

Between 7 a.m. Wednesday and 7 a.m. Thursday, a recording site near Key Largo measured 14 inches of rain.

Other readings during that period included 13.3 inches of rain just north of Fort Lauderdale, 12 inches at Pembroke Pines, 10 inches just south of Hollywood and 9.4 inches for Miami.

Peak winds during that period were 86 mph north of Key Largo, 75 mph in Dania Beach and Miami Beach, and 51 in Fort Lauderdale and Miami.

Leahy of the weather service said Orlando-area rainfall has been much less than South Florida’s but could continue to rise well past sunset Thursday. “We could still see rain bands coming,” she said.

Ryan Gillespie and Natalia Jaramillo of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report.