WORST STORM IN 100 YEARS SLAMS TAMPA BAY!

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Scorpion

#21 Postby Scorpion » Fri Feb 03, 2006 11:21 pm

Nothing at all exciting here.... just constant rain with an occasional downpour. Very depressing really. Ruined the night. Hope it goes away soon.
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Cookiely
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#22 Postby Cookiely » Sat Feb 04, 2006 8:03 am

Feb 4, 2006
A Torrent's Lashing
By NEIL JOHNSON
njohnson@tampatrib.com


TAMPA - A relentless line of thunderstorms arrived unexpectedly from the Gulf on Friday, bringing torrential rains that crushed roofs, flooded houses and roads, snarled flights, and prompted Pinellas County to ask the National Guard to rescue motorists.

Central Pinellas County was the worst hit, with radar estimates showing more than a foot of rain by Friday evening. In Tampa, more than 8 inches fell, making it the fourth-wettest day in the 116 years of recorded rainfall.

Pinellas officials reported at least 100 houses flooded, and the county opened an emergency shelter to accommodate evacuees. The county asked the National Guard to mobilize high-wheeled vehicles to retrieve motorists stranded on streets submerged in places under 4 feet of water.

Water invaded homes and turned low-lying streets into rivers in the unincorporated area of Lealman between St. Petersburg and Pinellas Park. More than a dozen people were evacuated during the last of the downpours late Friday afternoon. Some residents had 3 feet of water in their homes, Lealman Fire Chief Rick Graham said.

Two residents were taken to a nursing home, and 13 others went to a shelter at Northside Baptist Church in St. Petersburg, he said.

Lisette Martinez said she waited at a gas station from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. before floodwater receded enough to let her return to the neighborhood.

She and her husband, Carlos, had about a foot of water enter their garage and part of the house.
Roofs Give Way

The weight of the torrential rain caved in roofs at a business and a community center.

More than 4 inches of rain accumulated on the roof of Bed Bath & Beyond on 66th Street, causing a 30-by-40-foot section to fall into the front of the store near the cash registers Friday morning, St. Petersburg fire officials said.

One employee suffered minor lacerations, St. Petersburg police spokesman Bill Proffitt said.

Two neighboring stores were evacuated, and it was not known when the three would open.

Mayor Rick Baker said that in some pockets of west St. Petersburg, 12 inches of rain fell in 3 1/2 hours.

The second roof to give way was part of the community center in Treasure Island. A room was destroyed, but no one was injured, city spokesman Jeff Jensen said.

The rain that pounded through the afternoon created havoc with school buses trying to get students home on both sides of Tampa Bay.

At Azalea Elementary School in St. Petersburg, officials considered dismissing classes early because of flooding conditions outside the building, but buses couldn't get to the school so students stayed.

Several schools had minor outside flooding and roof leaks.

About 2 p.m., the school system sent recorded telephone messages to parents about possible delays in bus schedules as officials hunted for the best routes to avoid flooded streets.

Also, the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority suspended service during the height of the rain, as streets throughout the area became impassable.

Hillsborough County schools had major delays with buses that had to wait to leave schools and were tied up by heavy traffic, said Steve Hegarty, school spokesman. At 8 p.m., four buses were still delivering children, some as young as 5, he said. All students were home by 9 p.m., he said.
Hillsborough Flooding

Although Hillsborough County didn't receive the deluge that hit Pinellas, only three other days produced more rain in Tampa since records started April 1, 1890. The rainiest day was May 11, 1979, with 11.45 inches.

On Friday, streets flooded and sewage overflowed into the Hillsborough River from one strained pump station. In south Tampa, a mix of high tide and heavy rainfall flooded Bayshore Boulevard and made driving difficult in typically flooded areas such as Neptune Street at Dale Mabry Highway. In Palma Ceia, residents guided drivers around cars stuck on the streets.

No homes were reported flooded, but lightning struck a cupola on the roof of former Tampa Mayor Dick Greco's home, causing a fire and opening a hole.

"The fire department did a great job, and no one was hurt," Greco said.

Near the University of South Florida, where flooding struck in 2004 during Hurricane Frances, officials kept a close eye on the Duck Pond drainage system. "If it keeps raining, I'm afraid there will be a flood. It's even worse downstream," said Junshan Su, a county stormwater engineer.

The heavy rain overwhelmed a sewer pump station at Louisiana and Osborne avenues in Tampa, sending wastewater into the Hillsborough River.

Flooding was a problem at Coachman Avenue and at Paxton Street in south Tampa, said Steve Daignault, the city's administrator for public works and utility services. A stormwater project is planned to fix the area's flooding woes.

At Tampa International Airport, about 25 incoming flights were diverted, mostly to Jacksonville and Fort Myers. Passengers who did land couldn't get their luggage because lightning kept baggage handlers from unloading the aircraft, spokeswoman Brenda Geoghagan said.

The delays caused a ripple effect that backed up flights through much of the day.

Friday's rain came as a weak cold front stalled over the Tampa Bay area, allowing a train of thunderstorms, swollen with moist air from the south, to march ashore.

It was the same storm system that spawned tornadoes in New Orleans this week.

Another front moving south over Georgia will bring an additional inch or two of rain until about noon today, but it should be more scattered.

Although Friday produced near record rain for Tampa, stalled fronts are not rare. Last year, the same situation poured about 10 inches of rain over southern Polk and Osceola counties.

"Every year somebody gets it. Stuff just flows in from the Gulf and stops," said Paul Close, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Ruskin.

By tonight, cooler air will pour into the region with temperatures Sunday and Monday mornings in the mid-40s, he said.


This story can be found at: http://www.tampatrib.com/MGB7BQDI9JE.html
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#23 Postby Cookiely » Sat Feb 04, 2006 8:07 am

At the present time we are getting hammered. Its really coming down. THE RAINS CAME!
http://weathercenter.com/radar/doppler.htm
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#24 Postby Jim Cantore » Sat Feb 04, 2006 12:43 pm

reminds me of the 1000 year storm that hit my area on July 12th 2004

people are still suing over this one

one area down the road from me got 10 inches of rain in an hour

I got 6 inches where I was
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#25 Postby southerngale » Sat Feb 04, 2006 1:31 pm

Dang....good luck over there! That much rain in a short time can be devastating, as is shown with the crushed roofs and flooded homes. :(
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#26 Postby southerngale » Sat Feb 04, 2006 1:32 pm

Hurricane Floyd wrote:reminds me of the 1000 year storm that hit my area on July 12th 2004

people are still suing over this one

one area down the road from me got 10 inches of rain in an hour

I got 6 inches where I was


Suing who? :?:
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#27 Postby conestogo_flood » Sat Feb 04, 2006 5:26 pm

Our record in Ontario is 5.2 inches of rain in 1 hour at the Environment Canada office in north Toronto on August 19, 2005 in our 1 in 500 year storm.
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#28 Postby tropicana » Sat Feb 04, 2006 6:14 pm

conestogo_flood wrote:Our record in Ontario is 5.2 inches of rain in 1 hour at the Environment Canada office in north Toronto on August 19, 2005 in our 1 in 500 year storm.


I remember this storm oh so well. It was a Friday afternoon and I was in a mall in North Toronto looking on in awe from the skylight at the fury of the lightning and rainstorm outside that day. I've never seen such a spectacle in all my life. Eventually..the store roof started caving in..and we ran into the main part of the mall (on the upper level) and when we looked over the bannister..the entire lower level was awash with a raging wall of water.

Amazing day.

-justin-
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#29 Postby Droop12 » Thu Feb 09, 2006 10:55 pm

Late in March last year I recorded 14.5 inches of rain in 7 hours at my house. At the Pensacola airport they had 13.93 inches in about the same amount of time. A line of thunderstorms stalled parallel to the coast here and just trained for hours and hours. I was working at the time and people were coming in soakin wet saying there were cars underwater on the highways. Needless to say the ride home was pretty scary as the rain had yet to let up and there was lightning everywhere. My entire street was under almost 2 feet of water and it was getting into peoples houses because it was so high. That along with the 2 hurricanes here in the last year are my most amazing weather expirences.
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Re: 8-15 inches of rain Flood Tampa Bay; RECORD RAIN TAMPA!

#30 Postby isobar » Fri Feb 10, 2006 11:16 am

Tampa Bay Hurricane wrote:
... Record daily rainfall set at Tampa international...

As of 4 PM... a record daily rainfall of 7.73 inches had been set
at Tampa International Airport so far today. This breaks the old
daily record of 2.23 inches set in 1961.

This is also the 4th wettest individual day so far since records
began on April 1, 1890. The top ten wettest days are listed below.

Rain
rank (in) date
1 11.45 05/08/1979
2 9.88 06/23/1945
3 9.07 07/29/1960
4 7.73 02/03/2006 (as of 4 pm)
5 7.59 09/29/1997
6 6.54 06/13/1934
7 6.38 09/14/2001
8 6.30 09/04/1935
9 5.75 09/05/1933
10 5.47 06/26/1974


That date (05/08/79) is the whole reason why I am a weathergeek today. I lived in Tampa at the time. Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, & Polk counties were the hardest hit.

In Hillsborough county alone, we had 10 tornado touchdowns! There was a constant 13 hour tornado WARNING (not watch). T-storms were training from about 4am to 5pm. At my location in Town & Country, we had over 14 inches of rain.

That was an absolute 100 year storm. I've never seen anything like it and perhaps never will again!

http://www4.ncdc.noaa.gov/cgi-win/wwcgi.dll?wwevent~storms

Query Results
19 TORNADO(s) were reported in Florida between 05/08/1979 and 05/08/1979.

Florida Location or County Date Time Type Mag Dth Inj PrD CrD
1 PASCO 05/08/1979 0430 Tornado F0 0 1 25K 0
2 HILLSBOROUGH 05/08/1979 0510 Tornado F1 0 1 250K 0
3 HILLSBOROUGH 05/08/1979 0545 Tornado F0 0 0 0K 0
4 PINELLAS 05/08/1979 0600 Tornado F0 0 0 250K 0
5 VOLUSIA 05/08/1979 0715 Tornado F1 0 6 2.5M 0
6 HILLSBOROUGH 05/08/1979 0720 Tornado F1 0 0 250K 0
7 HILLSBOROUGH 05/08/1979 0755 Tornado F0 0 0 250K 0
8 HILLSBOROUGH 05/08/1979 0800 Tornado F0 0 0 250K 0
9 HILLSBOROUGH 05/08/1979 0945 Tornado F0 0 0 250K 0
10 HILLSBOROUGH 05/08/1979 0945 Tornado F0 0 0 250K 0
11 HILLSBOROUGH 05/08/1979 0945 Tornado F0 0 1 250K 0
12 PINELLAS 05/08/1979 0945 Tornado F0 0 0 250K 0
13 PASCO 05/08/1979 1100 Tornado F0 0 0 25K 0
14 POLK 05/08/1979 1115 Tornado F2 1 40 25.0M 0
15 CITRUS 05/08/1979 1130 Tornado F0 0 0 0K 0
16 HILLSBOROUGH 05/08/1979 1150 Tornado F0 0 0 25K 0
17 ST. LUCIE 05/08/1979 1330 Tornado F0 0 0 250K 0
18 MARTIN 05/08/1979 1415 Tornado F0 0 0 3K 0
19 HILLSBOROUGH 05/08/1979 1530 Tornado F0 0 0 0K 0


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