How bad was downtown Orlando’s rain? 3.84 inches

Downtown Orlando got 3.84 inches of rain Sunday evening, a staggering amount but not a record for the city because official measurements are done 7 miles away at Orlando International Airport.

The deluge lasted from 6 to 9 p.m., which for this time of year is a prolonged soaking, as thunderstorms typically do their thing and move on more quickly.

“It was slow-moving activity, so it was feast or famine,” said John Pendergrast, forecaster for the National Weather Service in Melbourne. “It was kind of checkerboard for who got the rain.”

“We are expecting the same kind of forecast for today where we have the best rain chances inland away from the coast,” Pendergrast said. “You folks in metro Orlando have a better chance than us at the coast.”

The 3.84 inches was measured at Orlando Executive Airport, east of downtown. Even if that weren’t a record, it was a lot, and far more than the .64 inches recorded at Orlando International.

The Orlando record for Sunday’s date is 2.04 inches, set in 1951, when Orlando International Airport was a military base, and the weather service had an office there. The weather service also typically takes its official measurement at a city’s largest airport.

In Orlando records going back to 1892, only three days in August have rain records that are greater than the 3.84 inches that fell Sunday at Orlando Executive Airport.

Those 3.84 inches that fell within three hours at Orlando Executive totaled more than the amount that falls on average during each of eight months of the year.

Going back 40 years, the rainfall Sunday at Orlando Executive Airport equaled the 11th rainiest day on record for Orlando, said forecaster Matt Bragaw of the Melbourne office.

On a summer day when conditions are right, there’s a good chance of heavy rain somewhere, Bragaw said.

“But on any given day, it’s just not going to be over the city of Orlando,” he said.