March has one day left, and we’ve still only a few drops of rain in Tampa the entire month.
Those drops fell way back on March 6. If we don’t get rain in the rain gauge in Tampa by midnight Tuesday night, it will end up being only the third time in recorded weather history that Tampa only received a trace of rain for the month of March (also done in 2006 and 1907).
We’ve only seen eight months in Tampa weather history that have received unmeasurable rainfall for an entire month. These months were January 1950, March 2006 and 1907, April 1981 and 1967, May 2001, October 2010 and November 1960.
We do have a chance of rain in this last day of March. Tuesday will see a scattered rain chance during the evening but possible even after midnight. It won’t be a lot of rain, but even a little would keep March 2020 from tying an unwanted record.
The entire year has been dry. Just 2.91 inches of rain has fallen in Tampa for 2020. This is less than half of the normal rainfall -- with Tampa now 5.07 inches below normal in the rain gauge. Last year, we had nearly nine inches of rain by this point in the year. This shortage has Tampa Bay moving toward a potential drought.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is forecasting for conditions to get worse. Its forecast is for much of Tampa Bay to get elevated into drought status.
This is also the time of year that we need to start watching for wildfires. The hot and dry weather is often a recipe for wildfires. We're starting to transition into a time of year that's between the last rain-making wintertime cold front and when the daily sea breezes start bringing thunderstorms every afternoon.
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