City Smashes 84-Year Rainfall Record

Pensacola, Florida, obliterated its daily rainfall record for July 3 when 2.9 inches of rain fell in the city on Wednesday.

The previous record was 1.78 inches on July 3, 1940. The rain was caused by a slow-moving storm that paused over the Pensacola area, contributing to the rainfall totals. The National Weather Service (NWS) issued some flood advisories associated with the rain. So far this month, Pensacola has received 2.98 inches of rain, 2.25 inches below its July monthly average of 5.23 inches.

NWS meteorologist Don Shepherd told Newsweek that although the rain beat the previous record by more than an inch, it's not abnormal for Pensacola to see heavy rainfall amounts of 2 to 3 inches for this time of year.

"This is our rainy time of year. The moisture in the air, the relative humidity, and dewpoints are very high," he said. "So if you've got storms that don't move around much, it's not atypical to see areas that get 2 to 3 inches of rain."

Baldwin County, Alabama, also saw some minor flooding associated with the storm. More rain is expected over the next several days, Shepherd said, and showers are currently over the Pensacola area as of Thursday morning.

Although Wednesday's rainfall is not related to Hurricane Beryl, the NWS office in Mobile, Alabama, which oversees the Pensacola area, warned that rip currents from the storm could arrive as early as Friday morning.

"Extremely Dangerous Rip Currents will begin Friday morning along the Gulf of Mexico beaches as Hurricane Beryl passes over the Yucatan Peninsula sending long period swells northwestward," the NWS office in Mobile warned on X, formerly Twitter.

Rip currents can be caused by hurricanes or tropical storms that cause disturbances in the ocean, and they can impact a beach even if a tropical storm is hundreds of miles away, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) warned.

Eight people have drowned in Florida since June 20 because of hazardous rip currents. Nineteen people have died across the U.S., according to NWS data.

Tropical Storm Alberto caused hazardous waters in June, contributing to several of the deaths.

Hurricane Beryl is a Category 3 hurricane, with National Hurricane Center experts anticipating it to hit the Yucatán Peninsula and Belize by Thursday night. Meteorologists have repeatedly said that the storm's impacts to the U.S. are uncertain given its forecast, but the NHC warned that regardless of the storm's track, it will produce "life-threatening beach conditions" beginning on late Friday for the Gulf Coast because of the rip currents.