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31-May-09 | Global Warming?

Now that the rain is gone, the sun has definitely come out. This is a shot of my thermometer on Sunday afternoon, as the sun baked my back porch.

79* inside, 105* outside at 6:45pm.

Remember, it's only May!  I can't imagine what July and August will be like.

24-May-09 | Rain, Rain, Go Away...

A week ago, we here in Daytona Beach were praying for rain as we hadn't had any in many, many weeks. Our grasses were dried up, burn bans were in place, and our local stream and river flows were at their lowest point on record.

Apparently the gods heard our plight and sent 27" of rain in 5 days. 27 inches! That's more than we received from Tropical Storm Fay and Hurricance Frances combined! To put this in perspective, Charleston, SC receives about 50" of rainfall per year. We received 50% of the entire year's rainfall in 5 days. That's 6 months worth in 5 days!

After only 2 days...

There were over 70 street closures due to flooding, many schools were closed, and entire neighborhoods were underwater.

My co-worker, Dee, had to leave early Wednesday to sandbag her house in an attempt to stave off the rising waters. No luck. Her house flooded almost 20". She lost everything: furniture, clothing, floors, cabinets, books, files, computer...  FEMA came to her house and stayed for 2 hours to assess the damage. They say she'll receive a check in the mail, but she'll probably be staying with friends for 4-6 weeks while the repair work is done.

The weather station said that it was caused by a large rotating front that sat stationary off the Florida coast. Because it is still early in the year, the waters are not warm enough for it to have developed into an organized system or else we would have had our first tropical storm or hurricane of the year.

Snippet from the News-Journal: Rainfall from Sun, May 17 to Thur, May 21
(NOTE: It continued to rain until Sat, May 23)

Damage in Volusia County:

I don't know how long this link will work, but it shows Massive flooding at the Speedway. The rains basically turned the racetrack into a 2.5 mile swimming pool. Here are a few more pics of the area: