Rainfall should start tapering off next week

Whew!  The past couple of weeks have featured monster amounts of rainfall over much of the eastern U.S. and Santa Rosa Beach did not escape the deluge.  Check out this precipitation map for the first half of July.  It shows the percentage above normal rainfall:

At the yellow cross - representing Santa Rosa Beach - the area has received over 400% of the normal rainfall for the first half of July.  By any stretch that's a LOT of water.  The culprit is mainly the clockwise circulation around a robust Bermuda High off the East Coast that is pumping tropical moisture northward over the Florida panhandle.  This unmoving high pressure feature is "blocking" the forward progress of weather systems trying to move eastward across the country and the result is a series of "stuck" cold fronts squeezing out heavy rainfall over the same areas day after day.

This heavy rain will continue for the next couple of days as the precipitable water (PWAT) values remain very high.  Coupled with a tropical wave that will cross the Florida panhandle this moisture will provide another two inches of rainfall between now and Tuesday evening.  After that things should settle back down to "normal" Florida summertime weather with a chance of afternoon thunderstorms and highs in the mid to upper 80's.  Of course that means great beach weather!