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Debby wrecks Florida
Published: 6/26/2012 5:00 PM
Last Modified: 6/26/2012 5:00 PM

Here’s what this blog is not about: Heat. That’s the only time I will use those four letters, so go ahead and get it out of your mind.

For today, let’s head to Florida. There is lots of weather happening in the Sunshine State, thanks to Tropical Storm Debby.

Debby made landfall not too long ago near Steinhatchee, Fla., near where the Panhandle meets the rest of Florida. But its effects have been felt up and down the Gulf Coast for several days now.

Some places of Florida experienced between 10 and 20 inches of rain just yesterday. Tornadoes have been reported. Flooding is widespread.

And Debby has really just sat there. Spinning and spinning and moving at about 3 mph to the east. So, basically not moving at all.

It’s pace has picked up and it looks like it will cross Florida as a tropical depression and then regain strength in the Atlantic as it heads out to sea.

Debby is the Atlantic’s fourth named storm. The others haven’t been much to speak of, though.

Debby formed near the Yucatan Peninsula on Saturday and has been painfully slow as it crossed the Gulf, just kind of hanging out off the coast of Florida.

It’s been destroying rainfall records for the month, with some places more than 3 inches above normal. Rivers are reaching record levels.

Some good news is that the rainfall has destroyed the drought that had plagued northern Florida for more than a year.

Here are a few photos from the damage caused by Debby. Think about that as you swelter in the dryness that has become this summer.

--Jerry Wofford

A message referring to rainfall from a tropical storm system is displayed at the San Jose Baptist Church on Monday, June 25, 2012, in Jacksonville, Fla. Tropical Storm Debby raked the Tampa Bay area with high wind and heavy rain Monday in a drenching that could top 2 feet over the next few days and trigger widespread flooding. (AP Photo/The Florida Times-Union, Kelly Jordan)

In this Monday, June 25, 2012 photo, life guard towers on Clearwater Beach are awash from high waters from Tropical Storm Debby, in Clearwater Beach, Fla. Debby flooded homes, an animal shelter and closed parts of the main interstate highway across northern Florida on as the storm hung stubbornly offshore over the Gulf of Mexico, threatening up to two feet of rain in places. (AP Photo/The Tampa Bay Times, Jim Damaske)

Len Hoffmann tours a flooded section of Selkirk Street in New Port Richey, Fla. on Tuesday, June 26, 2012. High winds and heavy rains spawned by the approaching Tropical Storm Debby caused the damage. (AP Photo/The Tampa Bay Times, Douglas R. Clifford)

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Almanac

Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec

	Temperature		Precipitation
Date	High Temp	Low Temp	Total	Month to date	Historical average
1	44°	16°	0	0.00	0.05
2	59°	24°	0	0.00	0.11
3	57°	33°	0	0.00	0.16
4	68°	37°	Trace	0.00	0.21
5	69°	29°	0	0.00	0.26
6	66°	33°	0	0.00	0.32
7	59°	38°	0.05	0.05	0.38
8	51°	34°	0	0.05	0.44
9	44°	36°	0.01	0.06	0.51
10	62°	37°	0.07	0.13	0.57
11	54°	28°	0	0.13	0.64
12	44°	30°	0.25	0.38	0.70
13	55°	40°	0.01	0.39	0.76
14	°	°			0.83
15	°	°			0.89
16	°	°			0.95
17	°	°			1.02
18	°	°			1.09
19	°	°			1.16
20	°	°			1.23
21	°	°			1.31
22	°	°			1.38
23	°	°			1.46
24	°	°			1.53
25	°	°			1.61
26	°	°			1.69
27	°	°			1.77
28	°	°			1.85

TEMPERATURE

RAINFALL

SNOWFALL

Weather World

Follow Jerry Wofford on Twitter for updates during severe weather conditions.

Tulsa weather milestones of 2013 (as of Feb. 12)

Highest temperature: 70 on Jan. 11 (Record: 115 on Aug. 15, 1936)
Lowest temperature: 15 on Jan. 16 (Record: Minus-16 on Jan. 22, 1930)
Hottest month (average): 40.5 degrees in January (Record: 91.7 degrees on July 1980)
Coldest month (average): 40. 5 degrees in January (Record: 21.7 in January 1918)
Most snowfall (day): 0.1 of an inch on Feb. 12(Record: 13.2 inches on Feb. 1, 2011)
Most snowfall (month): 0.1 of an inch in February(Record: 22.5 inches in February 2011)
Most rainfall (day): 0.91 of an inch on Jan. 29 (Record: 9.27 inches on May 26-27, 1984)
Most rainfall (month): 1.54 of an inch in January (Record: 18.18 inches on September 1971)
Highest wind speed: 30 mph on Jan. 30
Previous day with any rain: Feb. 12
Previous day with 1 inch or more of rain: Oct. 17, 2012
Previous day with any snow: Feb. 12
Previous day with freezing temperatures: Feb. 12
Read regular updates on Oklahoma's unpredictable weather and learn more about meteorology from the Tulsa office of the National Weather Service.

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Contributors
Staff Writer Althea Peterson started writing for the Tulsa World in March 2007 after previous stops at the Norman Transcript in 2006 and the Oklahoma Gazette in 2005. She followed her older brother from rural Wisconsin (with a public school that never seemed to call snow days) to the University of Oklahoma, but did not follow his pursuit to study meteorology. However, she tries to find as many opportunities to report on the weather as possible.

Staff Writer Jerry Wofford came to the Tulsa World in 2010 from The Manhattan Mercury in Manhattan, Kan. Originally from western Arkansas and a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, Jerry has lived in Tornado Alley his entire life and is one of those people who goes outside when the sirens go off.

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