Thunderstorm frequency (Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Davie: house, shop, move)

[JumpBall]

Hi. I'm hoping to relocate to the Southeast Florida area soon and was curious about how often a good thunderstorm comes through? I'm not sure on exact area yet, but considering possibly building a house in Southwest Ranches or Davie area?

I've always heard that it rains almost daily sometimes in Miami area, but that a lot of times the showers are over quickly. Are there ever entire days, or nights of storms? I also heard that the storms are more frequent and longer lasting the more inland you go, is this true?

I'm hoping it storms often especially at night and that they aren't always over quickly. Any feedback is appreciated.

[OptimusPrime69]

Between May and October, thunderstorms can be a daily occurance.
Sometimes they just pop up in the afternoon and are over within an hour, other times theres an area of disturbance that sits over FL during the rainy season and makes for days that are gray and rainy with intermittant thunderstorms and rain...

Winter months there really aren't many thunderstorm...it's the summer months whre they can become annoying. Like, u may walk into Publix under completely sunny and hot conditions and do a bit of shopping and as ur walking out it's pissing down rain and thundering... 20 mins later

Generally, the thunderstorms start out west and move eastward.... also sometimes they can come in off the coast and move west too, so everyone gets a lot of rain during the rainy season there's no escaping it.

[ruski]

There are more thunderstorms inland (Davie, SW Ranches, Weston, P Pines) than at the beach.

It could be raining cats and dogs in Weston, and I take ride to Sunny Isles and it is Sunny there!

[harry chickpea]

The heat and moisture of the Everglades builds upswelling air currents, the air from the ocean rushes in to fill the vacuum. Where exactly the storms fall varies according to what else is happening in the atmosphere. The tv stations have some good meteorologists who could guide you more.

[Ft Laud Guy]

All good information above. Here's some actual 24-hour radar loops of the area from various summer days:

http://radblast-sf.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/radar/WUNIDS_composite_archive?centerlat=26.05241966¢er lon=-80.14865875&radius=124&newmaps=1&type=N0R&type2=TR 0&num=24&SD.epoch=1307851200&ED.epoch=1307937599&D ELAY=20&delay=10&width=640&height=480

http://radblast-sf.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/radar/WUNIDS_composite_archive?centerlat=26.05241966¢er lon=-80.14865875&radius=124&newmaps=1&type=N0R&type2=TR 0&num=24&SD.epoch=1309406400&ED.epoch=1309492799&D ELAY=20&delay=10&width=640&height=480

http://radblast-sf.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/radar/WUNIDS_composite_archive?centerlat=26.05241966¢er lon=-80.14865875&radius=124&newmaps=1&type=N0R&type2=TR 0&num=24&SD.epoch=1345176000&ED.epoch=1345262399&D ELAY=20&delay=10&width=640&height=480

http://radblast-sf.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/radar/WUNIDS_composite_archive?centerlat=26.05241966¢er lon=-80.14865875&radius=124&newmaps=1&type=N0R&type2=TR 0&num=24&SD.epoch=1402286400&ED.epoch=1402372799&D ELAY=20&delay=10&width=640&height=480

As you can probably tell, sometimes it just has to do with what the prevailing winds are doing that day too.

[Papillons2]

In general, the pattern from roughly Memorial Day to early October is sunshine in morning with clouds starting to roll in shortly before noon, afternoon showers and thunderstorms, and clearing skies in the evening. We'll get an occasional all-day soaker when tropical waves move through.

We'll get thunderstorms during the "dry" season ahead of cold fronts, but it's not unusual to go for quite a few days without rain during the winter and early spring.

[Fl1150]

It varies I remember times where It didn't rain for months and nearly it was one of the driest years we had because it literally did not rain for the entire year.

[Reptoid Humidian]

Originally Posted by Fl1150

It varies I remember times where It didn't rain for months and nearly it was one of the driest years we had because it literally did not rain for the entire year.

That's hard to believe, since Fort Lauderdale averages 65 inches annually. Do you remember what year?

[ruski]

2001 or 2002 we had a drought and couldn't even wash cars

[harry chickpea]

That "drought" was largely artificial. The idiots at the water board claimed that the embankments on Lake O. were in danger of failing and LOWERED the water level just before the dry season. THEN they got to impose $$$fines$$$ because of a frigkin manufactured "WATER SHORTAGE" when there was continually obvious water in the local canals about 4' below the average land level - AND we were not allowed to use our own irrigation wells ten miles inland, because they were afraid of seawater invading the aquifer on the coast. That pure horse manure government gone wild was one of the reasons that led up to our leaving.