I've made a chart using data from the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) to make a nice chart presenting rainfall totals by the month at the Tampa International Airport weather station. In the chart below you will notice that I have included 2012 and January through August for 2013. What I'd really like to point out is that yes it has been a rainier summer than the average, but take for instance June 2012, there was well over twice the average amount of rainfall, and rightly so. If you recall, Tropical Storm Debby made landfall in the Big Bend region of Florida and dropped a lot of rain in a very short period of time in the Tampa Bay Area.
The big point that I am trying to make here is to think about what an average is. Take this simplified example: if in region A there is 100 inches of rainfall for half the year and none for the rest of the year; region B 75 inches half the year and 25 the other half; and in region C 50 inches in both halves of the year. All of each of these regions have 50 inches of rainfall a year on average, but the climate of these regions clearly are aren't the same as one another. That's one thing I would like for everyone to keep in mind when looking at statistics. You have to be able to completely understand how the numbers are calculated and what they are telling you before you can begin to make any sort of conclusions from them.
To go on and answer the question as to why is has been so rainy this summer in the Tampa Area I'll first say that it has been a rainy year, but it's nowhere near the records. Next I will say that I believe the reason it has felt so rainy is because of extended strings of rainy days. In Tampa Bay, rainfall in the summer really depends a lot on tropical systems and this season we've Andrea and Dorian contribute to our rainfall in June and August respectively which have contributed to rainfall as well as a set-up with low pressure systems in the gulf being forced to the northwest.
