Through September 1, 2026, Treasure Coast year-to-date rainfall is above the 1991–2020 mean at the official airports (Fort Pierce about +7 to +8 inches, Vero Beach +3.7 inches). The surplus came from April, not from the last three months, which ran near to slightly below the wet-season normal. Inland west Martin / Port St. Lucie blends are closer to average. No tropical-cyclone rainfall has been recorded in the county this year.
Indiantown, Florida 34956
Multi-decade rainfall & special-weather analysis · ~50 years (1976–2026)
Focus: daily-to-annual rainfall, the weather systems that produced it, and tropical cyclones affecting inland western Martin County.
Updated 1 Sep 2026: last-three-months overlay (Jun–Aug 2026 + 1 Sep) stacked on the 50-year record.
Focus: daily-to-annual rainfall, the weather systems that produced it, and tropical cyclones affecting inland western Martin County.
Updated 1 Sep 2026: last-three-months overlay (Jun–Aug 2026 + 1 Sep) stacked on the 50-year record.
How to read this file. There is no single official rain gauge that recorded every day at 16101 SW Palomino Street for 50 years. This analysis therefore uses (1) SFWMD area-weighted rainfall for the Martin/St. Lucie region (the best operational product for this zip), (2) the historic NWS cooperative station “INDIANTOWN, MARTIN COUNTY” (~27.01°N, 80.46°W), (3) nearby CoCoRaHS gauges “Indiantown 0.4 SW” and “0.5 SW,” (4) NCEI Martin County climate-division / county series, and (5) National Hurricane Center / NWS Melbourne storm reports. Point totals at a ranch west of Indiantown can differ from Stuart or the coast by 1–3 inches in a typical month and by much more in a single thunderstorm or rain-band.
~55.0 inSFWMD Martin/St. Lucie 1991–2020 annual normal
~55.2 inHistoric Indiantown coop station annual average
~38–40 inTypical wet-season share (May–Oct)
22.68 inMartin County record month — Sep 2004 (Frances + Jeanne)
2 landfallsHurricanes that made landfall on Hutchinson Island / Sewall’s Point in 22 days (2004)
~8–10+Named tropical cyclones with meaningful rain/wind here each decade
0. Overlay: the last three months (1 June – 1 September 2026)
What you have been walking through on the ranch versus the 50-year climatology. Totals below are the nearest official and quality private gauges — there is still no published 1 Sep 2026 daily dump from a Palomino Street observer, so this is Treasure Coast / Martin County truth, not a backyard micrometer.
~16–21 inJun+Jul+Aug 2026 at nearby gauges (Stuart private ~15.7″+; PSL blend 20.8″)
22.06 inSFWMD Martin/St. Lucie normal for those same three months
~70–95%of the Jun–Aug normal — near to a little below, not a flood year
+3.99 to +7.85 inYTD surplus at Vero / Fort Pierce through 30 Aug — mostly from a wet April, not from summer storms
0 hurricanesAtlantic basin through 1 Sep 2026. Five named storms, none a FL hurricane landfall
7.20 inSeptember normal still ahead — climatological peak for tropical rain
Month-by-month vs the 50-year / 1991–2020 normal
| Month 2026 | SFWMD Martin/St. Lucie normal | Stuart private (27-12N, 80-14W) | Fort Pierce official (NWS) | PSL 34987 blend | What produced it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June | 7.46 | 5.34 | — | 4.90 | Sea-breeze / pulse storms. Wettest Stuart day 1.59″ on the 21st. Below normal. |
| July | 6.47 | 6.96 | — | 8.48 | Best of the three months. Ordinary wet-season convection. TS Bertha was a Gulf storm (19–24 Jul) — not a local rainmaker. |
| August | 8.13 | 3.40 (thru ~27th) | 4.27 (−2.67 vs 6.94 FPR normal) | 7.43 | Felt rainy because it rained often in small shots. Official Fort Pierce: zero days ≥1.00″. Greatest 24-h there 0.98″ (26–27 Aug). NWS flood advisory 23 Aug for parts of Martin & St. Lucie (1–3″ already down, +1–2″ possible that evening). |
| 1 Sep (so far) | ~0.24 of a 7.20-in month | — | — | ~0.55 in 24 h at PSL | NWS Melbourne 31 Aug: 60–70% rain chances every day into the first week of September. Typical daily amounts <0.50″, locally heavier always possible. |
| Jun–Aug sum | 22.06 | ~15.7+ | Aug alone already 2.7″ short of its own normal | 20.81 | Near-normal to modestly dry for the heart of the wet season. |
Year-to-date context (why it can “feel wet” even if summer is only average)
NWS Melbourne (Scott Kelly, 31 Aug 2026): Treasure Coast is above normal year-to-date.
- Fort Pierce 1 Jan–30 Aug: 41.92 in, +7.85 vs normal.
- Vero Beach 1 Jan–30 Aug: 39.16 in, +3.99 vs normal.
- Stuart private YTD through late August: 32.34 in (different siting; April alone was 6.96 in with 2.67 in on 8 Apr).
The surplus is concentrated in a wet April (Fort Pierce’s heaviest 2026 daily total so far was 3.8 in on 9 April) plus a decent May. That is dry-season / transition rain, not hurricane rain. It primed the ground heading into June. The last three months did not pile a second surplus on top of it at the official airports.
Cause of the rain you actually got — mapped onto the 50-year catalog
| 2026 event / pattern | Match in the 50-year file | Not a match |
|---|---|---|
| Almost daily 2–6 p.m. thunderstorms, usually 0.10–0.80″ | Ordinary wet-season sea-breeze / lake-breeze cells. This is the default May–Oct climate, not an anomaly. | Not Frances, Jeanne, Irma, or Ian rain. |
| 23 Aug flood advisory, 1–3″ already down in parts of Martin/St. Lucie | Classic training pulse / heavy cell. Same family as the Village of Indiantown “6 inches on a Saturday” drainage failures — infrastructure + intensity, not a named storm. | Not a 7–12″ tropical-cyclone day. |
| TS Arthur (mid-Jun), Bertha (late Jul), Cristobal (mid-Aug), Dolly (late Aug) | 2026 is a below-normal Atlantic season under a strengthening El Niño. Five named storms, zero hurricanes as of 1 Sep — a modern-era record pace for the first hurricane. | None of these were Treasure Coast landfalls. No David / Erin / Frances / Jeanne / Nicole analog this summer. |
| Warm, humid, highs upper 80s–90s, heat-index days | Textbook wet-season thermal regime. Stuart private Aug mean max 94.9°F / max 99.8°F on the 17th. | Not a drought-break monsoon and not a tropical siege. |
How this summer sits next to the design events in the long record
| Analog | Rain at / near 34956 | Vs Jun–Aug 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Ordinary wet-season quarter (this is you, 2026) | 16–22 in over Jun–Aug | You are in this bin. |
| Ian 2022 (SW-FL landfall, dirty-side rain here) | Indiantown 0.4 SW = 7.32 in in a few days | One storm ≈ an entire dry August 2026 at Fort Pierce. |
| Irma 2017 | Martin sites 6.5–10.5 in | One storm ≈ half of your whole Jun–Aug total. |
| Frances + Jeanne Sep 2004 | Martin County record month 22.68 in | One month ≈ your entire three-month 2026 summer, plus wind and trees. |
| Fay 2008 (stalled TS, rain to the north) | Melbourne-area 27.65 in possible | A weak, stalled tropical storm can still out-rain this entire summer. |
What this is not. The last three months are not evidence that 34956 is in a new, permanently wetter climate state, and they are not a 2004-class loading of the ground. Official August at Fort Pierce finished 2.67 inches below normal with no 1-inch days. The “it has rained for three months” feeling is the wet season doing its job — many wet days, few extreme days.
What it is. Soils, ditches, and the C-44 / local drainage are in a normal-to-moist wet-season state heading into September, which is the climatological peak for both monthly rain (7.20 in normal) and tropical cyclones. A single slow tropical system in September can still put 5–10 inches on western Martin County on top of what is already there. That is the 50-year lesson, not the last 90 days.
1. Climate setting for zip 34956
Indiantown sits on the inland, western side of Martin County, a few miles east of Lake Okeechobee and the C-44 / St. Lucie Canal system, in a rural residential / agricultural landscape. The climate is humid subtropical with a pronounced two-season rainfall pattern:
- Wet season (late May–early October): sea-breeze and lake-breeze thunderstorms, tropical waves, and tropical cyclones. Most days from June–September have a 50–65% chance of measurable rain. Isolated cells can drop 2–4 inches in an hour while a gauge 3 miles away stays dry.
- Dry season (November–April): frontal passages, occasional nor’easters wrapping moisture around a high, and rare tropical remnants. Many weeks have little or no rain. Cold-air damming and strong high pressure produce the driest stretches.
Because the site is inland, storm surge is not the primary tropical-cyclone threat. Wind, tree-fall, prolonged power outages, sheet flooding of poorly drained ranch and subdivision streets, and canal/dike operations around Lake Okeechobee and the C-44 are the local impacts. Nighttime quiet is high; any prolonged industrial or storm noise stands out against that rural baseline.
2. Monthly, quarterly, and annual normals
Primary table: SFWMD 30-year historical average rainfall, 1991–2020, Martin/St. Lucie region (inches). This is the official water-management product for the county pair that contains 34956.
| Month | Martin/St. Lucie | Share of year | Season |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 2.47 | 4.5% | Dry |
| February | 2.31 | 4.2% | Dry |
| March | 3.08 | 5.6% | Dry / transition |
| April | 2.99 | 5.4% | Dry / transition |
| May | 4.34 | 7.9% | Wet starts |
| June | 7.46 | 13.6% | Wet |
| July | 6.47 | 11.8% | Wet |
| August | 8.13 | 14.8% | Wet — usually the peak month |
| September | 7.20 | 13.1% | Wet + peak hurricane risk |
| October | 5.18 | 9.4% | Wet tail / late trop. systems |
| November | 2.99 | 5.4% | Dry |
| December | 2.38 | 4.3% | Dry |
| Annual | 55.00 | 100% |
Quarterly accumulation (same normals)
| Quarter | Months | Inches | % of year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 | Jan–Mar | 7.86 | 14.3% |
| Q2 | Apr–Jun | 14.79 | 26.9% |
| Q3 | Jul–Sep | 21.80 | 39.6% |
| Q4 | Oct–Dec | 10.55 | 19.2% |
Wet season vs dry season
| Season | Months | Inches | % of year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wet | May–Oct | 38.78 | 70.5% |
| Dry | Nov–Apr | 16.22 | 29.5% |
Independent checks: the old NCDC cooperative station “INDIANTOWN, MARTIN COUNTY” published a long-term annual mean of 55.2 inches (Jan 3.1, Feb 3.2, Mar 2.4, Apr 1.7, May 2.2, Jun 10.4, Jul 7.8, Aug 7.7, Sep 6.1, Oct 8.7, Nov 0.6, Dec 1.3). That older series shows an even more peaked June and a wetter October than the 1991–2020 SFWMD regional mean — typical of a single gauge versus an area-weighted product. Weather Spark’s 1980–2016 reconstruction for Indiantown is slightly drier (~50–52 in) because it blends modeled grids. For local planning, 52–58 inches in a “normal” year is the right band.
Typical monthly profile (visual)
3. What “daily rainfall” actually looks like here
A 50-year daily series is ~18,250 days. Publishing every day is not useful. The distribution that matters:
- Most days are dry or nearly dry. Even in August, about 10–12 days typically have <0.04 in. Annual count of “wet days” (≥0.04 in) around Indiantown is roughly 130–160.
- Ordinary wet-season days: 0.10–0.75 in from a sea-breeze or lake-breeze cell, often 2–4 p.m. through early evening.
- Heavy convective days (not named storms): 1.5–3.5 in in 1–3 hours. These are the events that flood SW Palomino / Little Ranch Estates streets when ditches are full or blocked. Village of Indiantown has documented ~6-inch weekend events overwhelming drainage in recent years.
- Named tropical-cyclone days: 3–12+ inches over 24–72 hours, sometimes with a second system 2–3 weeks later (2004 is the extreme).
- Dry-season frontal days: 0.25–1.5 in, occasionally 2–4 in when a stalled front trains over the peninsula (classic late-January / March pattern).
NCEI county-scale extremes for Martin County confirm the tails:
- Wettest single month on the county series: 22.68 inches in September 2004.
- Wettest June on the county series (example of a non-landfalling peak): 16.80 inches in June 1992.
- Driest months approach a trace (historic February low 0.01 in in 1911; modern dry Januaries near 0.14 in, e.g. 2012).
4. Annual accumulation — how much a year can swing
In this climate an “average” year of ~55 inches is not typical in the statistical sense. Individual calendar years commonly range from the low 40s to the mid/upper 70s, and water-year totals (May–April or Oct–Sep) swing even more because one October hurricane can land in either year.
Drivers of a wet year: a busy Atlantic hurricane season that sends even one slow mover across or just offshore the Treasure Coast, plus an early wet-season onset (May thunderstorms) and a late October system. Drivers of a dry year: a suppressed wet season (Sahara dust, hostile shear, or a strong Bermuda high pinning the sea-breeze west of the coast) plus few or no tropical systems. El Niño winters tend to be wetter than La Niña winters in South Florida; the wet-season tropical-cyclone signal is more complicated.
Nearby long-record examples (not identical to Indiantown, but the same climate family): Jupiter / South Indian River Water Control District water-year totals in published engineers’ reports have ranged from the high 30s to the upper 70s/low 80s across 1974–2025, with a multi-decade mean near 62 inches at some eastern gauges — consistent with a modest east-to-west rainfall gradient from the coast toward Lake Okeechobee.
5. Special weather: tropical cyclones that matter at 34956
Treasure Coast landfalling hurricanes since the mid-1970s, plus the close passes and rainmakers that actually wet western Martin County. Intensity is at closest approach / landfall, not peak lifetime intensity. Rain totals are the best documented nearby values — often coastal or county-wide, not a gauge on Palomino Street.
AUG 1976
Tropical Storm Dottie TS
Southwest-Florida landfall; heavy rain across the peninsula. Local impact at Indiantown was rainfall and gusty winds, not a direct hit. Typical of the “west-coast landfall, east-coast rain” pattern that still occurs (Ian 2022, Milton 2024).
3 SEP 1979
Hurricane David Cat 2 landfall near Hobe Sound
Direct Treasure Coast strike. ~95 mph at landfall, pressure ~28.71 inHg, ~5 ft tides on the coast. Track spun inland through Martin County. Rain generally 4–10+ inches along the east coast. First modern “this can happen here” event for current residents’ parents’ generation. Five Florida deaths; damage concentrated Palm Beach–Martin.
1984–1985, 1988
Isidore, Bob, Keith and other tropical storms TS / brush
Repeated tropical-storm or subtropical rains. Individually modest; collectively they fill the “ordinary wet year” bucket. Isidore 1984 produced a Florida fatality. These years show that named-storm rain is not only a hurricane problem.
15–16 NOV 1994
Tropical Storm Gordon TS 8 FL deaths
Crossed the Keys, looped, and came back across the peninsula. Slow, wet, tornadic. South Florida already had a very wet 1994; Gordon added more flooding rain. Pattern lesson: November systems are uncommon but not rare, and they catch people after “hurricane season is over.”
1–2 AUG 1995
Hurricane Erin Cat 1 landfall near Vero Beach
First named hurricane landfall on the Treasure Coast since David. Relatively compact. Rain and wind on the northern Treasure Coast; Martin County on the south side of the circulation. Three Florida deaths associated with the storm family that year.
15–16 OCT 1999
Hurricane Irene Cat 1 over South Florida very heavy rain
Moved north-northeast at ~10 mph after crossing South Florida. NHC / local reports: very heavy rain and many trees down on the Treasure Coast. 10–20 inches in parts of Palm Beach County; Stuart-area reports of flooding rain. Classic “not that windy at Indiantown, but the ditches lose.” Eight indirect Florida deaths.
5 SEP 2004
Hurricane Frances Cat 2 landfall — Hutchinson Island / Sewall’s Point
The defining modern storm for Martin County until Jeanne arrived 21 days later. Large eye (~50 miles), slow (<5 mph at times). Sustained 105 mph at landfall.
- Martin County damage ~$1.02 billion (2004 USD); 1 death in the county.
- 1,300 residences damaged or destroyed in Martin County.
- Martin Memorial / hospital water damage; mosquito-control hangars destroyed.
- Rain generally 6–13+ inches across the Treasure Coast and interior; county monthly total later hit the all-time NCEI mark when Jeanne stacked on top.
26 SEP 2004
Hurricane Jeanne Cat 3 landfall — same stretch of Hutchinson Island
Landfall ~2 miles from Frances’ landfall. 120 mph. Second major hit in 22 days on ground that was already stripped of leaves and full of water.
- Schools in Martin County reported worse damage than from Frances.
- Roofs, mobile homes, widespread tree and power loss.
- Combined Frances+Jeanne rain produced Martin County’s record September: 22.68 inches (NCEI county series).
24 OCT 2005
Hurricane Wilma Cat 3 SW FL landfall — inland wind on Treasure Coast
Crossed the peninsula after Cape Romano landfall. Fast, large wind field. Martin County saw damaging gusts and power loss more than extreme rain. Completes the 2004–05 “three-hurricane” memory that still shapes local building and vegetation.
18–19 AUG 2008
Tropical Storm Fay TS, multiple FL landfalls extreme rain to the north
Looped across Florida. Melbourne / Windover Farms 27.65 in (one of Florida’s wettest tropical cyclones). Treasure Coast received several inches to 10+ in spots; the worst totals were Brevard and north. Lesson: a weak, stalled tropical storm can out-rain a Category 3 that moves.
6–7 OCT 2016
Hurricane Matthew Cat 3–4 offshore parallel track
Did not landfall in Martin County but produced hurricane-force gusts on the immediate coast and several inches of rain. Highest Martin rain reports ~3.8 in. Surge and beach damage east; inland 34956 mainly wind and a rain increment.
10–11 SEP 2017
Hurricane Irma Cat 4 Keys / Cat 3 Marco Island — rain & wind here
Tracked up the southwest side of the peninsula. Martin County was on the dirty (east) side of a large circulation.
- Martin County storm-total rain commonly 6.5–10.5 in (Stuart COOP 10.53 in; Palm City CoCoRaHS 8.52 in; Allapattah / SFWMD sites 6.2–7.8 in). St. Lucie peaked near 21.7 in at Fort Pierce — a training rain-band that largely missed Indiantown.
- Gusts to hurricane force on Hutchinson Island; inland gusts generally 50–75 mph.
- 17 roads inundated in Martin County; a large sinkhole reported at a neighborhood entrance in Indiantown.
- FEMA DR-4337; ~8,200 registrations and $18M public assistance in the county package.
AUG–SEP 2019
Hurricane Dorian Cat 5 Bahamas — Cat 2/3 parallel offshore
Stalled over the northwest Bahamas, then crawled north well east of the Treasure Coast. Martin County: several inches of rain, tropical-storm to low-end hurricane gusts on the coast, long-duration high surf. FEMA DR-4468. Inland ranch country: wind in the trees, not a flood event.
2020
Isaias, Eta and other 2020 systems TS / remnants
Busy year statewide. Local rain increments from outer bands and remnants; no 2004-style landfall. Useful as a reminder that “active season ≠ local catastrophe.”
28 SEP 2022
Hurricane Ian Cat 4 SW FL — rain on the east side
West-coast catastrophe; Treasure Coast was the right-front rain/wind periphery after the storm crossed the peninsula. NWS Melbourne: Indiantown 0.4 SW CoCoRaHS 7.32 in; Indiantown 0.5 SW 5.34 in; Indiantown 11.1 NW 4.36 in; Port Salerno 7.32 in. That is a solid 1-in-2 to 1-in-5 wet-season multi-day total from a storm whose eye never came close to 34956.
10 NOV 2022
Hurricane Nicole Cat 1 landfall just south of Vero Beach
Rare November hurricane landfall on the Florida east coast (first hurricane-strength east-coast FL landfall since Wilma 2005). Beach and dune damage from Vero through Martin; millions in coastal infrastructure. Inland rain generally moderate compared with Frances/Jeanne/Irma. FEMA DR-4680 (~$21.7M PA statewide package including Martin).
AUG–SEP 2023
Hurricane Idalia Cat 3 Big Bend
Primary impact well north. Outer rain and a gusty tropical-storm envelope possible; not a local flood driver at Indiantown.
26–27 SEP 2024
Hurricane Helene Cat 4 Big Bend
Catastrophic surge in the Big Bend and inland flooding well north and west. Treasure Coast effects were mainly swell, some rain, and a reminder of how fast a Gulf storm can still throw water and wind across the peninsula.
9–10 OCT 2024
Hurricane Milton Cat 3 Siesta Key — tornadoes + rain on Treasure Coast
Crossed the peninsula and exited near Cape Canaveral. Outer bands produced tornadoes that killed six people in a Fort Pierce mobile-home community (St. Lucie), plus an EF0 across Martin/St. Lucie.
- Martin County sites (Stuart, Indiantown, Jensen Beach): sustained ~44 mph, gusts ~66 mph, rain ~3–6 inches.
- Vero Beach 10–11.5 in; St. Lucie 4.5–5.7 in.
- FEMA DR-4834 / EM-3622.
6. Rainfall vs. the weather that caused it
| Cause | Typical 24-h total at 34956 | Season | Notes for this zip |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sea-breeze / lake-breeze thunderstorm | 0.10–1.50 in (locally 2–4 in) | May–Oct | Most common rain. Extreme spatial variability. Can flood a ditch and miss the next ranch. |
| Tropical wave / trough (unnamed) | 0.50–3.00 in | Jun–Oct | Often the “why is it raining for three days” pattern. |
| Tropical storm (direct or nearby) | 2–8 in | Jun–Nov | Fay-type stall can exceed this. |
| Hurricane rain bands / core (nearby landfall) | 4–12 in (stacked events 15–23 in/month) | Aug–Oct | Frances, Jeanne, Irma, Ian are the modern calibrators. |
| Stalled front / winter-spring overrunning | 1–4 in | Nov–Apr | Can produce the wettest winter weeks. Flooding is less flashy but pastures stay wet. |
| Cut-off low / hybrid system | 2–6 in | Any, often Oct–Nov or May | Gordon 1994 family. Hard to forecast totals. |
| Suppressed pattern (Saharan dust, ridge) | 0–0.25 in for 7–14 days | May–Aug | Drought stress on pasture and wells even inside “wet season.” |
7. Other special weather (non-tropical) worth recording
- Flash / urban-style flooding of rural streets after 3–6 inches in a few hours, even without a named storm. Village of Indiantown has publicly described drainage structures overwhelmed by ~6 inches on a single Saturday, with water to doorways in neighborhoods. That is a land-use and infrastructure issue as much as a meteorological one.
- Droughts. Multi-month rainfall deficits occur in the dry season and, less often, in a failed wet season. They show up as falling Lake Okeechobee stages, well-level drops, and fire weather in the western county. 2000–01, 2006–07, 2010–11 and several La Niña winters are the recent reference droughts statewide; local pasture and grove operators feel them first.
- Freezes and rare winter precipitation. Measurable snow at this latitude is essentially nonexistent. Hard freezes (1977, 1981, 1983, 1985, 1989, 2010) matter for citrus and tropical plants, not for rainfall totals. 1981 produced Martin County’s record-cold January on the NCEI series (avg temp 54.8°F).
- Tornadoes are usually weak and short-lived, embedded in hurricane rain bands (Milton 2024) or in late-day wet-season cells / winter squall lines. The Fort Pierce EF3 of October 2024 was on the St. Lucie side but is the current regional worst-case for manufactured housing.
- Heat and humidity. Not rain, but they travel with the wet season: afternoon heat index 100–110°F is routine June–September when the rain holds off until 4 p.m.
8. Decade-by-decade snapshot (1976–2026)
1976–1985 — David and the quiet-ish 1980s
Hurricane David (1979) is the decade’s local landmark. Most other years were ordinary wet-season convection plus occasional tropical storms (Dottie 1976, Isidore 1984). Statewide Florida rainfall in this decade was not exceptional. The 1981 freeze winter was thermally extreme, not hydrologically.
1986–1995 — Gordon, Erin, and wet winters
Late-1980s tropical brushes. Gordon (1994) and Erin (1995) bookend a wet mid-90s. 1994–95 is a good example of “the rain year is not the same as the hurricane year”: lots of water, only one local hurricane landfall (Erin).
1996–2005 — Irene, then the 2004–05 siege
Irene 1999 was a rainstorm with a hurricane name. Then Frances and Jeanne in September 2004 produced the county’s wettest month on record and the most concentrated structural damage of the last 50 years. Wilma 2005 added wind. Anyone writing land-use or infrastructure comments for western Martin County should treat 2004 as the primary analog, not 2017 or 2022.
2006–2015 — Fay rains, then a quieter stretch
Fay (2008) was the rain story. Several quieter hurricane seasons locally. Drought interludes (2006–07, 2010–11) remind that 55-inch normals hide multi-year dry spells that stress wells, canals, and pasture.
2016–2026 — Matthew, Irma, Dorian, Ian, Nicole, Helene, Milton
Highest frequency of “household-name” storms in the 50-year window, but only Nicole made a Treasure Coast landfall, and it was Cat 1 in November. Irma (2017) and Ian (2022) delivered the largest documented rain totals at Indiantown-area gauges in this decade (roughly 5–10 inches per storm). Milton (2024) was the tornado event. The pattern: more near-miss major hurricanes, fewer direct Cat 2–3 landfalls than 2004, still plenty of 5–10 inch rain jobs.
9. What this means on the ground at 34956
- Design for the stacked event, not the average year. September 2004 put ~23 inches on the county in one month. Two 7–10 inch storms three weeks apart will beat any single-storm drainage assumption.
- Most flood water here is rain, not surge. Inland western Martin County floods when the ground is already wet, ditches are full, and a slow tropical system or training sea-breeze sits overhead. Lake Okeechobee / C-44 operations can add a water-management overlay that a coastal analysis misses.
- A “miss” can still be 5–8 inches. Ian 2022 is the clean example: eye over southwest Florida, 5–7 inches at Indiantown CoCoRaHS sites.
- Daily comparisons year-to-year are noisy. The right comparison is (a) monthly and seasonal accumulation vs. the 1991–2020 normal, (b) count of 2-inch and 4-inch days, and (c) whether a named storm contributed. Comparing 12 August 1998 to 12 August 2018 tells you almost nothing.
- Rural soundscape and livestock. Prolonged tropical rain and wind are the meteorological analog to any proposed constant industrial noise: they are episodic, high-energy, and they already define the upper bound of what the landscape absorbs. They are not a baseline.
10. Sources & how to go deeper
- South Florida Water Management District — 1991–2020 regional normals (Martin/St. Lucie column) and rainfall-sites map / DBHYDRO for station-level pulls.
- NOAA NCEI Climate at a Glance — Martin County, FL monthly precipitation since 1895. Record month 22.68 in, Sep 2004.
- NOAA NCEI / Florida Climate Center downloadable daily data for Florida cooperative and first-order stations; GHCN-Daily IDs near Indiantown include CoCoRaHS US1FLMT0026 (Indiantown 0.4 SW) and US1FLMT0041 (0.5 SW).
- Historic coop summary: WorldClimate “INDIANTOWN, MARTIN COUNTY” (N27W080, station 084262C), annual mean 55.2 in.
- National Hurricane Center storm reports; NWS Melbourne post-storm rainfall statements (Frances, Jeanne, Fay, Matthew, Irma, Ian, Nicole, Milton).
- HurricaneCity Stuart compilation; FEMA disaster declarations for Martin County (DR-4337 Irma, DR-4673 Ian, DR-4680 Nicole, DR-4834 Milton, and earlier).
- CoCoRaHS daily reports and NWS Melbourne Ian table listing Indiantown 0.4 SW = 7.32 in.
Limits of this product. This is a synthesized 50-year climatology and event catalog, not a substitute for a gauge-by-gauge spreadsheet of every daily observation. Official daily files should be downloaded from NCEI CDO / GHCN-Daily or SFWMD DBHYDRO if you need courtroom- or permit-grade numbers for a specific date. Radar-only estimates (MPE) can be off by tens of percent in isolated cells. CoCoRaHS observers start and stop; always check the station’s period of record before treating a “zero” as real.
If you want a follow-on file: a year-by-year Martin County NCEI monthly table (1976–2025) as CSV/xlsx; a 2004 Frances+Jeanne rain-band map packet; or a one-page “design storm” sheet for Little Ranch Estates drainage comments. Say which one when you come back.