![]() ![]() This affects everything from lawn watering to golf courses to landscaping to agriculture. All or parts of 14 counties are under water use restrictions imposed by two water management districts that began last week and will remain in force until July, according to agency documents. Over on the Gulf coast, it's a different story. And just during the past 90 days, many parts of South Florida have been inundated again with between 150% and 200% of average rainfall totals, according to the weather service. In April, a storm that sat over Fort Lauderdale dumped nearly 25 inches (63.5 centimeters) of rain in some areas, causing many neighborhoods to flood. Indeed, in mid-November a no-name storm with wind gusts approaching tropical storm strength lashed Miami, Fort Lauderdale and nearby areas with readings approaching a foot (30 centimeters) of rain over three days, In the Florida Keys, the city of Marathon set an all-time daily record for November when 6.68 inches (17 centimeters) of rain fell in a single day. “This wind pattern tends to focus most of the precipitation over the interior and eastern side of the peninsula, rather than a more typical east wind pattern which would focus a lot of the daily summer thunderstorms over the western half of the peninsula,” Molleda said in an email. ![]() The main driver of the precipitation divide was a weaker than typical high pressure system this summer over the western Atlantic Ocean that led to persistently lighter easterly winds, said Robert Molleda of the National Weather Service office in Miami. And as a result, we have lower groundwater levels starting the dry season.” “With the west coast having a deficit about 30%, we didn’t get that recharge that we expected. “The whole western coast of Florida has been impacted by this deficit rainfall during the rainy season,” said Mark Elsner, water supply bureau chief for the South Florida Water Management District. For example, in three counties around Tampa Bay watering is only allowed one day a week depending on a resident’s address and only then before 8 a.m. “And so you have to know how to deal with like the boom and bust of the, like, climate chaos.”įor most people, the restrictions affect lawn and landscape watering, which accounts for about half the water used daily in the affected areas. “You know, as the climate changes, we’re going to have to adapt to these extremes,” said Dan Durica, a board member at Tampa’s Sweetwater Organic Community Farm. This means hotter temperatures in summer, more powerful hurricanes and other heavier rainstorms and droughts during unexpected seasons. What's happening in Florida could soon become a reality elsewhere, as farmers and residents increasingly have to deal with changes in weather patterns because of climate change. Now Florida's wettest season is over until late spring. – In Florida, this year has been a tale of two states as far as rainfall totals, with the southeast coast deluged by sometimes-record rainfall and much of the Gulf of Mexico coast facing a drought.Ĭounties up and down Florida’s west side are under new water use restrictions, especially in one area where the water table has gotten so low that wells could dry up.
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