Why Does it Rain Everyday in Florida?

If you've ever been in Florida during the summer, you've noticed it rains every day around 3pm or so. If you found this out as locals ran past you when it was drizzling in the parking lot, and you were soaked by the time you reached the store, I'm sorry. No doubt, you uttered these fateful words I've heard a hundred times: Why does it rain everyday here? The major reason is because of the make up of Florida - it's a peninsula.

Cool moist air comes off of the Atlantic. The sun has worked, since it came up, to heat up thew ground. In fact, it does pretty darn good at the whole heating up the earth thing. No doubt, you can contest to this since you have the opportunity to feel it everyday. On an average Florida day of 90 degrees Fahrenheit, the land is at least 80. If this land is swamp or sand, it will retain the heat even more sometimes raising the temperature even more. We all know hot air rises and cold air likes to stay low to the ground. When the cool air moves on shore and hits the hot air, it raises at an extremely fast rate. It raises at such a fast rate that it brings all of it's water vapor with it. Because Florida is such a swampy, water based state, all of the hot air is naturally filled with water as well. So the cold air gets an express elevator ride into the cooler atmosphere. All of this water condenses into solid water vapor or what we call clouds. There is so much water, and so much up air developmental, the water has nowhere else to go except up, and eventually when it can't go up anymore, it will go down in buckets. This whole process ends around three o'clock in the afternoon.

This happens on both sides of the coast, and then moves inland. Depending on what kind of land it goes over, will depend on if it will gain more water or not. These huge thunderstorms are pushing out water and cold air. When the two sides meet up in the middle, they push cold air at each other making yet another huge bunch of clouds. The original two clouds team up with the one int he middle, and you have another huge thunderstorm begin fed by water from the Gulf and the Atlantic. There are times when the West coast of Florida will not get an afternoon thunderstorm, it will just build and build, sprinkle a bit, and no rain. But, once it hits the middle, the Atlantic breeze is stronger than the Gulf, and it will feed and push those clouds back. Then around 6pm, the storm that hits the west coast is a down pour that will last for 3 hours. It's getting rid of all of the water it has accumulated for the day.

In essence, all the daily thunderstorms amount to are hot air and cold air fighting for the same ground.