Florida Rain Breaks 52-Year City Record

Moisture-laden storms arrived in Florida earlier this week, and the torrential rain has already broken a city record after more than 10 inches of rain fell in Sarasota on Tuesday.

A plume of moisture from the Caribbean is bringing excessive rain to the region. Meteorologists previously expected the heaviest rains to occur from Wednesday to Friday, but downpours have already brought a deluge to southwestern Florida, including in Fort Myers and Sarasota. So much rain fell in only one hour in Sarasota that it broke a 52-year-old rainfall rate record by nearly an inch on Tuesday evening.

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Fox 35 Orlando meteorologist Noah Bergren shared a video that showed floods in Sarasota after the record-breaking rain fell.

"St Armand's Circle in Sarasota, Florida late Tuesday evening. MAJOR rains fell with significant flooding ongoing there and Bradenton," Bergren posted on X, formerly Twitter, with the video.

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"Rain is over 10.3" just from Tuesday officially in Sarasota. In fact, 3.93" of rain fell from 7-8PM EDT Tuesday, which is the most ever observed in 1 hour in the history of Sarasota weather records (1972). Also, statistically getting this much rain in such short time is about a 1 : 1,000 year flood for this part of FL. That does not mean it happens one only every thousand years, but the chance in any given year is around 0.1%!"

The previous rainfall record was 3.03 inches on January 1, 2006. It also surpassed Sarasota's average monthly rainfall amounts for June by 3 inches. The city typically sees around 7 inches of rain across the entire month.

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"Last night's storm was pretty exceptional," National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologist Austen Flannery told Newsweek.

As of Wednesday morning at around 8 a.m. Eastern time, Flannery said there was a reprieve from the rain, but more storms are expected throughout the week.

Other people shared videos of Sarasota's flooded streets on social media. In one video, someone is pushing a car through knee-deep floodwaters.

"Downtown Sarasota is on its way to being impassable," user Jonathan Petramala posted on X.

Storms are expected to continue throughout the week. NWS meteorologists issued a flood watch for all of southern Florida on Tuesday. The watch was originally expected to expire on Wednesday but has since been extended through Thursday evening.

"Excessive runoff may result in flooding of rivers, creeks, streams, and other low-lying and flood-prone locations," the flood watch said. "Flooding may occur in poor drainage and urban areas. Storm drains and ditches may become clogged with debris."

The NWS office in Tampa Bay warned that an additional 6 to 10 inches of rain could fall across parts of southwestern Florida through the end of the week. Flannery told Newsweek that around 4 to 6 inches of additional rain is expected in Sarasota. However, as there are breaks in the rain, Flannery said floodwaters can drain. He urged people to turn around if they encounter a flooded roadway.