The water level of the Wekiva River on Friday was the sixth-lowest
for that date in records going back to the 1930s, according to
preliminary government measurements.
The Silver River near Ocala
and the Suwannee River near Lake City are at record lows, while the
Peace River east of Sarasota is close to its lowest level on record.
In all, it's looking pretty droughty across Florida, as it was last
year at this time, and weather forecasters and other experts don't offer
much hope for relief until this summer's rainy season is well under
way.
"I expect dry conditions through June, and then after that
it's a crapshoot," said Tom Mirti, director of the Bureau of Water
Resource Information at the St. Johns River Water
Management District.
"Then it's, 'Do we get a hurricane or a tropical depression?' I'm
wishing for a really long tropical depression."
Blame the climate dominator, La Niña, for parching Florida and its neighboring states for the second year in a row.
La Niña refers to conditions in which the Pacific Ocean cools near the
equator, sending high-altitude jet streams into a tizzy that inflicts
the Southeastern U.S. with less rain than normal during fall, winter and
spring months.
A third La Niña in a row isn't expected to
develop later this year, though the reliability of a prediction that far
out is uncertain, said Ed O'Lenic, chief of the climate-operations
branch in the U.S. Climate Prediction Center.
All of Florida was
engulfed by drought to some degree in February of last year, according
to the U.S. Drought Monitor program, which relies on state, federal and
university partners to map the nation's dry spells.
Conditions
across much of the U.S. South, after growing even harsher through early
summer, finally began to moderate in August. By then, however, seemingly
unstoppable, huge fires were raging across Texas, destroying hundreds
of home amid the worst drought on record in that state.
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