Summer Brings Rain, Lightning to Polk County

LAKELAND | The start of Polk County's summer rumbled in with a weekend of thunderstorms that doused southern portions of the county with up to 3 inches of rain and lightning that obliterated the top of a chimney in a Lakeland neighborhood.

While official rainfall totals at the Lakeland Linder Regional Airport were only 0.29 and 0.56 inches Saturday and Sunday, respectively, it wasn't an accurate reflection of what other parts of the county received.

Most of the Polk received between 0.50 and 0.75 inches of rain throughout the day Sunday, said Richard Rude, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

A broken band of showers moving from west to east drenched parts of northeast Lakeland, Auburndale and Haines City with between 1 and 1.25 inches of rain late Sunday afternoon, according to radar reports, he said.

A lightning bolt Sunday was thought to be the culprit in the destruction of a chimney in the Grasslands Golf & Country Club in Lakeland.

Saturday was a bit lighter in terms of precipitation, Rude said. Most of Polk received between 0.25 and 0.75 inches of rain for the day.

The southern portion of the county, south of Winter Haven, received the most rainfall for the day, averaging between 1 and 1.5 inches of rain for the day.

But the largest dump of water came between Bartow and Lake Wales along the State Road 60 corridor, where storms dropped about 3 inches of rain, he said.

[ Jeremy Maready can be reached at jeremy.maready@theledger.com or 863-802-7592. ]