Is there something about the location of Florida that makes it possible to be raining like a sumbitch in one part of town, and a mile (or sometimes less) away, it’s still dry?
When I left work this past evening, it was raining. As we drove, less than a mile from work it looked like the end of the world. The roads were flooded and it rained so hard we had to slow to a crawl, visibility was so poor. Another half mile away, there was no rain, but it was damp. A further intersection up the street, and it was completely dry, not having rained there at all. I had to laugh about the girl I saw jogging toward monsoon season, unawares.
I’m from the Great Lakes area, where when it rains, it normally rains over a wide, wide area. Is there something about the proximity to the ocean and the gulf and the equator that makes it rain differently down here? I admit to being fascinated by the weather in Florida, rain in particular. It seems so random. Does anyone know why?
The weather fronts in the Great Lakes may be a bit different than in Florida, but I have any number of memories of rain falling on one yard and leaving the house just a few tens of yards away dry. (Of course, I’m old and have a lot of different memories.) There may be some aspect of the weather systems crossing from the Gulf to the Atlantic that generate more local showers or patchy showers than one typically sees around the Lakes, but we definitely get them, as well.
Ahhhh, welcome to the South, yankee. Chuckle. No offense, by the way, this is just the type of weather I take for granted in late summer. It happens all over the southeast.
What you are experiencing is “pop up” thunderstorms. They are localized phenomenon that occur in places that are hot and humid. Lots of water in the form of marshes and ponds. Simply put: the water evaporates in the heat of the day and goes up (and a lot of water evaporates). The 90 to 100 degree heat has been causing this localized water to spin around in the atmosphere all day, building up energy. Night falls, the temperature drops below the dew point, and all that localized energy releases in the form of a small, but occasionally intense, thunderstorm.
Because it is a local phenomenon, and not part of a larger front, these things can be quite small. Small enough that you can actually walk in and out of one. Figure the rain cloud over Charlie Brown. Very small. The reason they seem so random is that largely they are. The thunderheads form and release the same day.
That’s the key. It’s not a front that’s blowing through. Those small thunderheads formed somewhere close today; and they’re dropping somewhere else close today. Maybe on you, maybe not, so it seems random.
Hmph. I only clicked on this thread because my mind automatically associates the word “showers” with “nakedness”. Clearly, there is no nakedness here. I’ll move along.
Surely whenever it rains and wherever it rains there has to be a geographical spot where the rain ends. Why do you think that if it rains on one part of a city it must rain on all of the city? Why should rain respect imaginary (geo-political) lines?
No, not really. It’s the marshes and the heat that cause the pop up thunderstorms.
Good thing, too. We’re experiencing a drought. If we lost those wetlands we’d be dry as a bone.
This is not an advertisement for any charity, per se, but if any body wants to help save the environment, please, please, start with the chrarities that help save your local wetlands. Nobody* seems to have any idea how truly important they are to water quality, the prevention of erosion, the prevention of drought, and localized weather patterns.
*not necessarilly the people in this thread - just people in general
Funny this thread should pop up. Just the other day I was driving down SR 279 between Vernon and Greenhead and encountered one of those popcorn thundershowers. It was literally pouring down rain on one lane of the road, and dry as a bone on the other.
Excellent point! If I may, I would like to take this opportunity to suggest 1000 Friends of Florida to our Floridian faction. They are doing quite a lot of work to help control unbridled development and the destruction of wetlands and wildlife habitat that comes with it.
Well, there is also the Rain God phenomenon. (Cf. "So Long and Thanks for all the Fish.)
I am the Rain God of sending packages at Office Depot. Every single time I go to Office Depot to send a package it rains. Big horking deluge.
E.g., last week. As I start driving to OD: nada. When I get a mile from the place it starts raining a few big drops. I just manage to get the package (50lb) inside when the storm fully hits. I drop off the package, idle around a while, give up and run to my car. As I’m driving down the road it stops raining within a quarter mile. I stop at a store a little further along. Completely dry. Nothing happens at all there or on my way back.
And it’s been like that every single bleeping time for years. Any time of day, any time of year.
Can’t really make money off this “talent.” Only Office Depot and only when sending a package.
I know the SDMB frowns on such phenomenon being “real”, but there must be thousands of Rain Gods in the US alone. Could explain quite a bit.
Yup, does that here all the time. Just the other day, my partner was standing on our (roofed) porch and realized that it was raining on one side but not the other.
I had a strange experience along these lines. Sveral years ago I was driving across the northern plains states. I was a clear summer night and I suddenly had raindrops on my windshield. I turned on the wipers to clear the glass and then turned them off again as it seemed to have stopped. A few seconds later it happened again and it dawned on me that the sky seemed clear. I was so intrigued by this that I actually stopped and got out to search the sky, not a cloud in sight. I even thought that it might be a plane dropping WHATEVER, but I could see no aircraft. I’ve never figured this out, but it’s stuck in the recesses of my mind. Can it rain w/ no cloud formation?
After I had moved to Florida from the midwest my brother was visiting and we were going to go to a waterpark that day which was about a 30-minute drive.
We left the apartment and it was blue skies and sunny. About half way there we were in a downpour. My brother said “Wow, that came out of nowhere! What are our back-up plans for the day?”
I said “What this? Just wait. By the time we get to the waterpark it will be sunny with blue skies again.”
It was.
