We decided to have another rest day today, allowing thunderstorms to rumble away on their own as we headed onto Florida's tourist trail. We also had family commitments during the evening, so it seemed like the sensible thing to do. We decided to return to Myakka River State Park in order to explore the wilderness in more detail. However, for the second time in our holiday, our decision to take a break from storm chasing saw the weather having other ideas, sending storms in our direction irrespective of where we ventured.

It was a fairly cloudy start to the morning, with a further 18mm of rain falling overnight. This took the 24hr total up until 6am this morning to nearly 80mm. Such rainfall in the UK would lead to some serious flooding but there was barely a puddle left by the time we surfaced from our beds. We headed to Myakka State Park by early afternoon, and almost immediately the heavens opened. Thunderstorms developed right overhead, dropping some close CGs, one of which slammed down to the ground far away from the storm and in front of nothing but blue sky. This was a fitting reminder that simply being able to hear thunder in the distance meant being at risk from the lightning, even with no clouds overhead.

The first storm seemed to take forever to clear away. The main rain and lightning was now miles away, leaving us in sunshine but beneath the outer edges of a huge anvil. Given the anvil lightning a short while earlier, we decided to play it safe and give the anvil time to clear. However, the storm threw a lively gust front in our direction as it moved away, which triggered yet more storms over the park. Rain was torrential, and the gust front winds stripped branches off the trees all around us, probably blowing at around 40-50mph for a time.

Despite the looming storms, we managed to snap a few photos of raging reptiles before the torrential rain arrived. We headed back to base by late afternoon, to find that no rain had fallen in Bradenton all day. However, within an hour of being home, a new storm developed from literally nowhere, dumping 11.2mm of rain in 20 minutes before clearing off northwards. Proof, if it were needed, that storms can give as good as they get when it comes to chasing!