There are a lot of things you can control when it comes to your Disney World vacation, but you cannot control the weather. And, since the parks are located in Central Florida, there are some pretty significant weather events that happen in the area.
A rainy day in Animal Kingdom
Disney World regularly experiences thunderstorms in the summer months, and the parks have even shut down several times for hurricanes passing through. But, during the first part of the year, it’s pretty rare for us to see severe storms in Disney World. However, Central Florida weather is known for being unpredictable, and that was proven true last night!
The streets of Hollywood Studios were flooded in Disney World last night. Many guests were posting videos on social media of Hollywood Boulevard covered in water that was several inches deep. BBC reporter Sara Thornton said on Twitter that she was in the parks, and posted a couple videos of the flooding.
As you can see, people are wading through the street with water above their ankles in some spots.
And more footage from a very wet @WaltDisneyWorld @DisneyParks Hollywood Studios after a very intense band of t-storms moved through. #florida pic.twitter.com/I5pdZT0bWt
— Sara Thornton (@SaraThornton1) March 8, 2022
The downpour was due to a rare, summertime-style rain event where the Gulf of Mexico sea breeze collided with the Atlantic sea breeze over the Interstate 4 corridor, according to Fox 35 Orlando. No severe weather was expected, and Central Florida was experiencing drought conditions prior to this storm.
Storm Clouds in Hollywood Studios in 2021
There was also flooding seen in EPCOT — around World Showcase and near both entrances to the park. Stay tuned to DFB for more Disney World news and updates.
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Monday evening, we left the Grand Floridian at about 7:30, with some rain drops visible on the monorail windows. We experienced a little spray walking from the Contemporary across the elevated bridge to Bay Lake Tower. At 7:45, the heavy rains hit the Magic Kingdom and the Grand Floridian, across the lagoon, was not visible. One of the monorails took the spur back to the barn. The scheduled 8pm fireworks didn’t happen until much later. The monorails were shut down for a while, and, although the resort beam resumed operations, at 10, the express beam was still shut down.
I have been at EPCOT before when there was flooding. It may not happen often, but I would think after
the number of years WDW has been there that they would have better drainage.
This is why I always bring an extra pair of “park shoes” on my Disney trips.
In my experience the worst places may be outside the parks. Parking lots can be especially bad.
WDW has incredible drainage but when that much rain hits in that short of a time no pumps can handle it. Very rare occurrence n my opinion.
I live in Kissimme, (WDW is half in Orlando and half in Kissimmee) and when I got up Tuesday morning there was almost 5 inches of rain water in my garden wagon overnight. Now that is a lot of rain.
I wonder how the utilidors fared.
As Walt Disney World and surrounding areas have become more developed, and many roads built to handle increased traffic, the percent of land paved has greatly increased. That means a lot more rainstorm runoff to deal with. Design assumptions used by civil engineers can also be made obsolete by climate change. (Over 150 years of very accurate data indicate we’re experiencing more weather extremes than in the past.)
Decades ago, the head of facilities at WDW told me with obvious pride their system of canals and automatic French locks could handle the precipitation from one and a half hurricanes without any noticeable change in lake level. Though Disney’s design standards for personnel safety, security, and facility loss prevention are truly legendary, nature has increasingly demonstrated it can throw us curve balls.
Magic Kingdom Tomorrowland was flooded this Wednesday afternoon! People had to help move wheelchairs across near the old Merida meet and greet.