Thursday was a day of weather extremes for the Tampa Bay area.
The National Weather Service in Ruskin reports Tampa and Sarasota both set new high temperature records for May 24 with highs of 96 and 95 respectively. Both Brooksville in Hernando County and Bronson in Levy County posted highs of 97.
Then, thanks to that heat and humidity, strong storms popped up along the sea breeze Thursday evening.
Bay News 9 meteorologist Brian McClure tells the Tampa Bay Times parts of St. Petersburg and Oldsmar received about 2 inches of rain, the same amount that hit spots in western Pasco County.
There were reports of street flooding in St. Petersburg, and Progress Energy said about 2,900 cusgtomers in Pinellas County were without power at 8:15 p.m., but power was quickly restored.
Bay News 9 says dime-size hail was reported in Odessa and Trinity, and about a dozen structures in the Holiday Mobile Home Park in North Port (Sarasota County) sustained damage. While a funnel cloud was reported in the area, that National Weather Service said the damage was related to the thunderstorm. A final determination from the Weather on whether or not it was a tornado is expected on Friday.
No injuries were reported in any of the storms.
McClure says more rain is in the forecast for the Memorial Day weekend, with rain chances of 30 percent Saturday and 50 percent Sunday and Monday.
