Heavy thunderstorms dumped rain over much of the Tampa Bay area Wednesday afternoon, stranding motorists and prompting a flood advisory for areas including Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties that expired at 7:45 p.m.
Tampa Bay is in the middle of peak rainy season, when meteorologists expect about two-thirds of the area’s annual rainfall will occur.
The region has seen more rain than normal this summer, thanks in part to Hurricane Debby. The storm, which passed by Tampa Bay as a tropical storm, dumped up to 14 inches of rain in parts of Pinellas County and 10 inches in Hillsborough County. The deluge of rain has made it difficult for the ground to soak up all the water.
In St. Petersburg’s Central Oak Park, residents took to the neighborhood association’s Facebook page and offered some variation of a common refrain: Never seen it this bad.
“Lived here for 14 years and it’s never made it past our porch. It actually got in our house through the front door this time,” one resident wrote in a post.
At the Interstate 275 off-ramp south onto West Shore Boulevard, a Tampa Bay Times reporter saw multiple drivers making three-point turns after traffic was at a standstill for 45 minutes.
Here are some scenes from around the area on Wednesday.
Times staff writers Tony Marrero and Christopher Spata contributed to this report.
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