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Buckets of rain prime area for summer

As a dry spring pulls up stakes in the bay area, rain finally breaks free and douses the region. More showers are expected.

After a slow start, June thunderstorm activity is picking up for much of west central Florida.

Several areas already have received a good dousing this week, with parts of Citrus County getting as much as 4 inches on Monday alone.

"From Pasco north, everybody got it. The jackpot was Citrus," said Barry Goldsmith, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Ruskin.

The thunderstorms are being produced by westward-moving moisture from a tropical wave in the Gulf of Mexico colliding with warm air along Florida's west coast.

That scenario is expected to produce thunderstorms at least through Wednesday over a 200-mile-long area from Levy County in the north to Lee County in the south.

The rains are welcome news to the Tampa Bay area, which has seen below average rainfall during the spring.

"The way it's playing out, June will end up somewhere around normal," said Goldsmith. The average rainfall for June in the Tampa Bay area is about 5 1/2 inches.

The storms have caused a few problems, too, including downed tree limbs, scattered flooding and power failures.

In Tampa, fierce storms knocked out power to more than 9,000 homes Sunday night and early Monday. By noon Monday, power had been restored to all but about 1,000 homes, said Tampa Electric spokesman Ross Bannister.