Florida’s brutal drought worsens
 

With less than 2 inches of rain this year, Orlando is enduring its second driest stretch from Jan. 1 to April 5 since the late 1800s and also its hottest on record for that period.

Central Florida and much of the state’s peninsula are experiencing a widening severe drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, a collaboration of universities and federal environmental agencies.

“When was the last time it rained?” said Fran Boettcher, a master gardener at the Orange County and University of Florida agricultural extension center. “Who can remember?”

In Orlando, the last measurable rain was 25 days ago, when just .15 inches barely wetted the ground, boosting the year’s rain to 1.89 inches, or about as much as a single, typical summer downpour can bring.

The Drought Monitor is updated weekly on Thursday mornings. The newest report shows 55 percent of Florida under severe drought now, up from 20 percent at the start of this year and less than 1 percent last year at this time.

Also on Thursday, Florida’s commissioner of agriculture, Wilton Simpson, warned of a potentially torrid brush and forest fire season in the making from Ocala south across a tinder-dry landscape. His department oversees the Florida Forest Service, the lead agency for wildfire responses.

He urged care with backyard barbecues and watchfulness for arson and lightning strikes. Burn bans have been declared for Brevard, Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties.

We are asking everyone to be very vigilant,” Simpson said. “We realize this already has been a very busy season.”

Typically, April is a tough month for lawns and landscaping, as spring brings hotter weather but not much rain. On average, the dry season transitions to the rainy season in Orlando on May 27, or five days before the Atlantic hurricane season begins.

Derrick Weitlich, a lead meteorologist and climate program leader at the National Weather Service in Central Florida, said precipitation across the region so far in 2023 has ranged from 1 to 4 inches, which is as much as 6 inches below normal.

But, with global heating stirring the climate pot, weather has been wickedly fickle during the past half-year.

Hurricane Ian brought widespread flooding and record rainfall to Central Florida in late September.

By early October, the Florida peninsula was entirely drought free, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, while much of the West and especially California were dealing with brutally dry conditions.

With historic amounts of rain and snow this year in California and unrelenting drying out across Florida’s peninsula, the drought map has reversed.

California now has almost no severe drought and nearly all of Florida’s peninsula is swaddled in it.

The Drought Monitor Thursday cited reports in Central Florida of “numerous impacts of very dry conditions in the region including water holes drying up and areas experiencing extremely poor pasture conditions with supplemental feeding necessary to maintain livestock.”

For Central Florida residents watching their lawns broil into brown, Boettcher, the master gardener, suggested it might be time to consider switching to Florida native plants that can shrug off dry spells a lot better than thirsty grass.

“Lawns need a lot of water, fertilizer and pest control,” Boettcher said. “That’s a lot of time and a lot of pocket book.”

I haven't noticed...

It's on the way

We got a nice soaking a couple days ago, with more supposedly on the way in the next week.

California seems to be coming out of its drought. Weather!

California ties 1952 record for all-time Sierra snowpack

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Gee...weather changes, I'm shocked.

the earths magnetic north has shifted 30 miles…causing a delirium of problems.

1. The "US Drought Monitor" is a climate alarmist outlet. Read how it operates. It uses "subjective methods" and "unnamed experts" to create scary maps.
2. Florida's dry season ends in May. Be patient.
3. Golf courses and lawns are NOT part of natural Florida.

I just let the grass grow a little longer, give an extra day’s watering to the bushes - problem seems solved.

Tell me which one of these groups is the alarmist one, or all of them in your humble opinion

The U.S. Drought Monitor is produced through a partnership between the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

There is nothing subjective about their work except the dividing lines which they have derived between categories of severity of drought. And while where to draw a line is subjective, they are totally consistent in their definitions and their data is derived from objective readings confirmed with on site reports.

I see nowhere on their site that they use "unnamed experts" in fact the authors are listed and the sources are listed. And if you find the maps "scary" maybe the drought conditions in those dry areas are "scary" Perhaps you will tell us that the low rainfall in Florida has not produced drought conditions, that there is no increased fire risk and this is all a cabal of "scientists" just looking for fame and fortune at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

While I think your post is interesting, it is a cut and paste of
Florida’s brutal drought worsens; Orlando has hottest start to year on record from the Orlando Sentinel

Please provide a link if you are going to wholesale copy something directly from the web and summarize what you read. From the rules of this road:

The scam is easy to find. Just look under the "Drought intensity categories are based on:" section, on this link ... Drought Classification | U.S. Drought Monitor

"I bless the rains down in... (Toto)" Florida. Bought time we see some :)

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