I heard in some areas the SST is four degrees higher than average.
Yes.. easily. And it does a number of storm systems.
When I was kid, working summers between college semesters at Dow Chemical’s plant in Freeport, Texas, I saw it all the time. My job was putting a new roof on four GIGANTIC brick buildings that smelted Mag Chloride to make molten magnesium. Each building was easily 200 yards long, 150 feet high with a series of stacks spewing out LOTS of heat.
If it rained? Our construction crew got to take the rest of day off. That meant, going somewhere to drink beer and play pool. SO MANY times, a solid line of thunderstorms would come right at us... but, when that heat updraft hit them, they would just part like the Red Sea and go right around us. We could literally see very hard rain a few hundred yards away. I hated it! LOL
But I loved weather. always have. Even when it doesn’t cooperate with my plans.
My kids in Tampa say the rain there has been minimal. They’re been getting it ever day for the past few weeks. So, they’re used to it now.
lol. I think I missed your meaning. I did see that sea surface temps were 4-5 F above average.
Downtown hear island temps run 4-5 F higher than sunburb temps too. ;-)