A plume of moisture from the western Caribbean delivered heavy rainfall to parts of southern Florida, particularly along its Gulf Coast, in June 2024.
A plume of moisture from the western Caribbean delivered heavy rainfall to parts of southern Florida, particularly along its Gulf Coast, in June 2024. Intense precipitation from a slow-moving storm system triggered flash flood warnings and inundated roadways, while several cities set new daily precipitation records for June 11. Statistically, an event this severe should only occur once every 500 to 1,000 years, said meteorologists.
The map above shows rainfall accumulation for the 24-hour period starting at 00:00 Universal Time on June 11 (8 p.m. local time on June 10). These data are remotely-sensed estimates that come from IMERG (the Integrated Multi-Satellite Retrievals for GPM), a product of the GPM (Global Precipitation Measurement) mission, and may differ from ground-based measurements. For instance, IMERG data are averaged across each pixel, meaning that rain-gauge measurements within a given pixel can be significantly higher or lower than the average.
Some of the highest rainfall totals were recorded in coastal Sarasota County. A National Weather Service (NWS) station in Sarasota measured 6.5 inches (16.5 centimeters) of rain for the 24 hours of June 11 (local time), breaking that date’s record of 2.5 inches, set in 1940. Nearby locations saw up to 10 inches that day, according to NWS Tampa Bay. The rain was intense at times; a record 3.9 inches fell in one hour around 7 p.m. local time at the Sarasota-Bradenton Airport, toppling the previous hourly rainfall record by nearly an inch. Normal precipitation for the entire month of June is 7 inches.
Read more at NASA Earth Observatory
Image: NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using IMERG data from the Global Precipitation Mission (GPM) at NASA/GSFC.
