Community Corner

Thunderstorms to Make Repeat Appearance Today (July 11)

Their strength might not mirror yesterday's storms.

 

There were some pretty heavy storms in the Brandon area yesterday. They caused most of their damage in Seminole Heights, but our area saw some heavy rain in the late afternoon and early evening. Today, we could get another round of similar weather.

However, forecasters don't think the storms will have the same punch as Tuesday and some are already firing up around Ft. Myers, said National Weather Service meteorologist Ernie Jilison. Those will work their way into the Tampa Bay area this afternoon, possibly quicker than on Tuesday.

Find out what's happening in Brandonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“I do think we’ll see plenty of showers this afternoon and some of them could be strong,” Jillson said. “(There’s) a pretty good batch of moisture coming up from South Florida. (We’ll get) an earlier start today.”

Some of today's storms have the potential for a repeat of Tuesday when thunderstorms felled trees in Seminole Heights and drenched the rush-hour commute for some motorists.

Find out what's happening in Brandonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

There were no reports of serious damage from Tuesday’s storms, but about 1,200 Tampa Electric Co. customers were without power this morning with a cluster around Temple Terrace and also along Interstate 275, according to TECO’s outage map.

There is a large concentration of outages in the Seminole Heights area right now with more than 500 customers without power.

“The potential for damage is the same as yesterday,” said Tyler Fleming, National Weather Service meteorologist. The storms will probably cover the entire Tampa Bay area, he said.

The same weather conditions exist today and did Tuesday when what meteorologists call a disturbance in the atmosphere juiced up the storms from the normal afternoon variety to the kind that snapped trees and spawned waterspouts.

The weather service puts rain chances for today at 60 percent through tonight with the best likelihood for thunderstorms after 2 p.m.

Stay with Patch for updates about the weather as they become available.

How did your neighborhood fare yesterday’s storms? Let us know in the comments section.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here