HOMOSOSSA SPRINGS, Florida (AP):

Tropical Storm Barry weakened into a tropical depression as it moved through central Florida yesterday bringing nearly seven inches (18 centimeters) of rain to parts of the drought-parched region.

Forecasters discontinued the tropical storm warnings and watches issued for stretches of the Gulf Coast. The depression's sustained winds had slowed to near 35 mph (56 kph) and it was moving north-northeast at about 23 mph (37 kph).

The storm, which formed on the first day of the Atlantic hurricane season, made landfall in the Tampa Bay area in the morning and had moved across the state to Jacksonville by the evening, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

Blessing

Dry conditions in Florida have left Lake Okeechobee, the second-largest freshwater lake in the contiguous United States, at its lowest recorded level and allowed a brush fire on the Georgia-Florida border to burn for weeks.

"This is a blessing," said Bob Buning, an employee at MacRae's Bait Shop in Homosassa, where boaters had returned to the Homosassa River by yesterday afternoon. "We needed this rain really bad."