Record rainfall: Sarasota, Bradenton area sees wettest summer and August ever

The month of August, as well as the summer overall, were the wettest on record for the Sarasota and Bradenton region, according to a climate summary from the National Weather Service in Ruskin.

It rained a total of 47.32 inches over the summer in Sarasota-Bradenton , the highest rainfall total in 2024 for an area in West Central and Southwest Florida. The figure includes rainfall between June 1 and Aug. 31. Normal summer rainfall for the area is 23.55 inches, according to the weather service data.

The Sarasota-Bradenton area also saw 23.55 inches of rain in August alone, compared with the normal total of 9.11 inches. The figure doesn’t include rainfall that was not captured on Aug. 5 because of equipment failure, but local rain gauges indicate that 3-4 inches of rain on that date would increase the total August and summer rainfall even more.

Venice also saw its wettest August on record with a total of 21.96 inches of rain. Normal rain in August for Venice is 8.34 inches.

September is also off to a wet start, with 2.76 inches record in the first five days, more than an inch greater than the normal 1.53 inches by this point in the month.

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The combined June, July and August period also measured as the fifth warmest summer on record, with an average temperature of 83.7 in Sarasota-Bradenton, compared with the normal 82.8 degrees.

National Weather Service Forecaster Austin Flannery said that without a doubt Debby was the highest contributor of rain, dumping a high amount of rain in a short amount of time . The area also saw intense rainfall that led to flash flooding in downtown Sarasota in early June. Those couple of events will skew everything on the high side, but it has overall been a wet summer, Flannery added.

More: Hurricane Debby brings one-day record rainfall to Sarasota-Manatee; many streets flooded

Trailing behind the Sarasota-Bradenton area for highest rainfall: Fort Myers had 43.87 inches, Tampa had 38.52 inches, Myakka River State Park had 38 inches, Venice had 37.69 inches and Plant City had 34.35 inches.

The increase of rainfall can be attributed to an increase of easterly winds, Flannery said. Summer thunderstorms are driven by the wind patterns and sea breeze. Since land heats faster than water, the cool air from the sea acts like a shovel, pushing the air upward and causing storm development.

Flannery said that the increase of easterly winds can be attributed to the location of the Bermuda high, a high-pressure system in the western Atlantic that dictates what the winds do.

One of the expected outcomes of climate change is that wetter places will get wetter. Since historically Florida is a wet location in the summer months, we can expect an overall increase of rain.

“It’s difficult to say that climate change is the causation of it, but it’s certainly a factor,” Flannery said.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Record rainfall: Sarasota, Bradenton area sees wettest summer and August ever