Just a friendly reminder to everyone that Daylight Saving Time begins at 2:00 AM on Sunday, March 10th. Before you go to bed the night of the 9th, make sure to turn your clock ahead by one hour to reflect the change. Just to let you know, your CoCoRaHS observations will continue to stay on local time. If your normal observation time was at 7 AM EST, it becomes 7 AM EDT after the time change. This should help avoid some confusion, but if you have questions, please feel free to drop me an email.

The CoCoRaHS slogans, "Every Drop Counts" and "The Rain Doesn't Fall The Same On All," were pretty evident here in Florida at the end of the month. Looking at the monthly totals across the state, gauges were either filled to capacity or collecting dust. Monthly totals ranged from 0.10" to 16.00". The 5-day rain event across portions of the Panhandle and Big Bend left many swampy yards and hopes that the rain would finally come to an end. In these regions, drought is all but gone and rivers are up, and more than a few of us are waiting for roofers to come and fix the leaks. My storm total was 11.86" from February 22nd - 26th. In addition to a significant rainfall amount (nearly 20% of the average annual total for Tallahassee), there were numerous reports of hail - a rare thing in Florida. The largest hailstones from the event were reported around Lake City, where 2" diameter hail (hen egg/lime size) broke car windows and downed tree limbs.  

FL-LN-2 4-day (22nd - 25th) storm total of 8.27".

Picture of hailstones taken from a neighborhood in east Tallahassee on the 24th.

On March 12, 1993, a well-defined frontal wave rapidly intensified over the Gulf of Mexico, and, as the evening progressed, a squall line developed over the eastern part of the Gulf and moved quickly towards Florida. As the squall line approached the coast, the forward motion of the line increased to 70 mph; as it crossed the state, it produced 11 confirmed tornadoes and numerous downbursts. By the early morning hours of the 13th, the line had pushed through the entire state, including the Keys. The storm left a path of destruction in its wake as it moved through the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, and has gone down in history as the 'Storm of the Century' and the 'Superstorm of 1993.'  

Here in Florida, wind gusts of near hurricane force were recorded at a number of locations. Tampa reported a maximum wind gust of 96 mph, Vero Beach saw a wind gust of 83 mph and the Dry Tortugas recorded a wind gust of 109 mph. Of the 11 confirmed tornadoes that touched down in Florida, 3 were of F-2 strength (in Lake, Levy and Marion counties). In addition to the wind and tornadoes, snow fell in north Florida, and several towns had unofficial estimates of up to as much of 5 inches. Numerous stations across the state reported record low temperatures for the day, and the storm surge along certain portions of the Gulf reached 6 to 12 feet.  

Image from the Annual Summary of the 1993 Storm Data publication. (Courtesy of the National Climatic Data Center)