ORLANDO, Fla. — September started off with Hurricane Dorian moving closely along our coast. Fortunately, the worst of the storm stayed well offshore.

Portions of Central Florida did pick up some gusty, squally rain showers during Dorian, but after Dorian passed by, our coast dry air punched in.

This dry air behind the tropical system quickly put the break on our rainy season.

September normally is one of our wetter months across Central Florida before dry season kicks-in around mid-October.

In fact, it is the rainiest month of the year in Daytona Beach. That’s where the average rainfall is 6.96 inches for the month.

For Melbourne, it is the second rainiest behind August with an average of 7.64 inches.

In Orlando and Sanford, it is the 4th wettest month of any given year.

However, it will go down as one of the top 10 driest September’s on record for Orlando and Melbourne.

Orlando experienced its sixth driest September, meanwhile, it is the fourth driest in Melbourne.

In Sanford, it goes down as the sixteenth driest on record. While Daytona Beach finished drier than average, it did not go down as one of the top 20 driest on record.

Temperatures finished warmer than average for all spots with three of the four main observation sites in Central Florida experiencing one of their top ten warmest Septembers on record.

September did finish as the fourth warmest on record for Daytona Beach. The monthly average temperature was two degrees warmer than the thirty year normal.

Melbourne experienced its second warmest September on record. The average monthly temperature was nearly three degrees warmer than normal.

This was right behind 2018 for the first warmest and only by a 10th of a degree.

It goes down as the fourth warmest in Sanford, and in Orlando, it came just shy of being in the top 10 warmest on record by a tenth of a degree.

Here’s a detailed summary of how September finished for Orlando, Sanford, Melbourne, and Daytona Beach.

ORLANDO

  • September Average Temperature: 82.1° (+1.0° Warmer than Average)
    • Tied for 11th Warmest with 2005, 1925 and 1995
       
  • Monthly Rainfall: 1.93” (-4.13” Drier than Average)
    • Tied for 6th Driest on Record with 1921

MELBOURNE

  • September Average Temperature: 83.5° (+2.9° Warmer than Average)
    • 2nd Warmest on Record just behind 2018
       
  • Monthly Rainfall: 2.09” (-5.55” Drier than Average)
    • 4th Driest on Record

DAYTONA BEACH

  • September Average Temperature: 81.5° (+2.0° Warmer than Average)
    • 4th Warmest on Record
       
  • Monthly Rainfall: 4.25” (-2.71” Drier than Average)

SANFORD

  • September Average Temperature: 82.0° (+1.1° Warmer than Average)
    • 4th Warmest on Record
       
  • Monthly Rainfall: 3.58” (-2.60” Drier than Average)
    • 16th Driest on Record

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