ORLANDO, Fla. — 2018 finished as one of the warmest on record for most of Central Florida, while rainfall was mixed across the region.

Orlando, Daytona Beach, Melbourne, and Sanford will have experienced one of the top 10 warmest years on record.

Melbourne

The most extreme records for temperatures and rainfall were set in Melbourne.

2018 finishes as the second warmest year on record. The warmest year is 2017 with 2015 being the third and the fifth is 2016.

Not only will 2018 go down as the warmest, but Melbourne will also have experienced its fifth driest year on record. Melbourne will finish the year more than 15 inches drier than average.

Normal rainfall for a year is 52 inches. This year Melbourne only picked up a little more than 36 inches.

Sanford

2018 finishes as the fourth warmest on record in Sanford. It falls behind 2017, 2016, and 2015. All three of the previous years are in the top three warmest on record.

Sanford will also finish drier than average, but only a little more than 3 inches below average. The total rainfall ended up being more than 48 inches for 2018. The 30-year running average is for more than 51 inches.

Daytona Beach

2018 will be the in the ninth warmest for Daytona Beach. The first warmest year on record is 2015, 2017 is the third warmest, and 2016 is the sixth warmest.

Daytona Beach was hammered with heavy rain off and on throughout the year. It will finish nearly 14 inches above average and will go down as the eleventh wettest year on record.

Orlando

It will be the seventh warmest year on record in Orlando. This comes after 2017 and 2016 both tied for the fifth warmest years on record, with 2015 being the warmest.

The year will finish slightly wetter than average for the City Beautiful but not by much.

Only 6.36 inches of rain fell during the meteorological fall months of September, October, and November. This drier than normal fall was going to leave Orlando short in the rainfall department for 2018 if that trend continued in December.

But in one month Orlando picked up nearly 7 inches of rain to close out the year thanks to a series of strong cold fronts. It is the wettest finish to the year since December of 2009 when 5.39 inches fell. This late year rainfall will bring the final total to more than 51 inches.

 

 

**Records for Orlando go back to 1892, 1923 in Daytona Beach, 1948 in Sanford and 1937 in Melbourne**