Despite there being another active thunderstorm day on the cards, we made a conscious decision to have a relaxing day instead. The weather, however, had other ideas, and simply wouldn't leave us alone!

Cumulus clouds began to grow far earlier in the morning than during previous days, with large towers erupting skywards as the west coast sea breeze began to move inland by mid-morning. Before lunchtime, a small shower developed right overhead, giving several grumbles of thunder and spoiling our poolside morning. 8.6mm of rain fell over our apartment in less than an hour.

These storms continued to rumble eastwards into the interior of Florida, allowing the hot sunshine to return to our relaxing poolside antics. However, we'd come to the conclusion that our Dodge Durango was too large, and far too gas-hungry (despite the comparitively cheaper fuel prices stateside). Therefore, we headed to Sarasota airport to swap our vehicle for a smaller model. Even at the airport, showers and thunderstorms were developing all around.

Through the afternoon, strong thunderstorms across the Florida interior sent a strong outflow boundary back westwards towards the Gulf Coast. This arrived in Bradenton by early evening, firing a huge area of thunderstorms directly overhead. Some frequent and very close lightning strikes were witnessed, together with gusty winds and 12.7mm of rain in 90 minutes.

These storms only very slowly rumbled themselves out during the evening, leaving a much cooler night with temperatures falling to a bone-biting 24°C!