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Community Corner

Pasco Ranks Among The Wettest In The State

Though it's difficult to get a true measure of Pasco County's rainfall, the county and others around it are ranked drought free.

From scarce to plentiful, rainfall was no stranger for most folks in central or west Pasco last week and the skies aren’t looking to dry up soon.

If you feel like there’s been a lot of rain lately, you’re not wrong.

By at least one measure, Pasco, Hillsborough and Pinellas counties are among the most sodden in the state.

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Brushed by a wave of tropic moisture late last week, we had excess fuel for storms mixed with the normal tendency for summer rain.

The wave is long gone, but enough humidity is hanging around to kick up another day of above average rain on Monday before the typical summer 40 percent rain shot shifts in place.

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For Monday, forecasters say storms may drift south after they form, mostly in the afternoon.

Then high pressure gets closer to add its dose of drier air and the rain gets back to more or less normal through the work week.

By drought standards, Pasco and the region are in the best shape of the state’s 64 other counties.

More than 93 percent of Florida is in some level of drought category, according to the National Drought Monitor, leaving about 6 percent of the state drought free.

That 6 percent of the state includes all of Pasco, Hillsborough and Pinellas along with the southern half of Hernando.

The rest of Florida ranges from 17 percent of the state in exceptional drought. The Gold Coast and a large chunk of the western Panhandle are in that highest category.

Another 27 percent of the state ranks in the extreme category, meaning nearly half the of Florida remains under the two more serious levels of drought.

Also, the drought index firefighters use to gauge how quickly blazes would start or spread has dropped to near the bottom of the scale.

The index that ranks 800 as bone dry and extremely prone to burning up and 0 as a swamp puts Pasco at 186 and Hillsborough at 120. Pinellas is close to basement at 22.

In late June when Pasco Fire Rescue asked for a, that measurement hovered above 600.

The weekend rain set records in Tampa, St. Petersburg and Lakeland on Friday and hung around through Sunday.

Exact rainfall measurements are difficult to determine in Pasco with a lack of ready official sites for the National Weather Service.

But measurements by a group of volunteers who report weather readings showed a wide spread of rain amounts across Pasco on Friday and Saturday.

One reading in New Port Richey came up dry while another measured 3 inches. Another in New Port Richey had just shy of an inch.

Recordings from Port Richey showed a similar spread with only .01 of an inch at one spot and 3.5 inches at another.

The few readings from Central Pasco were in Lutz with .8 of an inch and 2.2 inches.

The official record for Friday at Tampa International Airport was 3.67, breaking the 1982 mark of 3.38 inches. In St. Petersburg, 3.23 inches easily beat the 2.7 inches that stood as the record since 2000.

In Lakeland, the new record of 2.9 inches came just under twice the old record of 1.54 inches in 1983.

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