For some, Florida drought is getting very "extreme"

[flplantguy]

I really hope the change pans out.  Yesterday was the worst yet till a small rainstorm passed. 0.2inches after a heat index of 123! Eww

[PalmatierMeg]

8/12  nada, 8/13 nada, 8/14 nada (as of 2:30)

Nothing but blue skies and blazing sun all day yields 100.0F   and day after day of excessive heat warnings

 

[JLM]

Some are getting lucky today, some are not. There’s still time left in the day, maybe we can get something to fire further south. If not today, there will be more chances for everyone this week.

[SubTropicRay]

No rain again today but that’s normal in a record setting dry summer.   I’m thinking the WPC forecast is wishful thinking garbage.

[SubTropicRay]

On 8/14/2023 at 9:02 AM, JLM said:

Overblown.  I wish it were true.

 

 

[JLM]

9 minutes ago, SubTropicRay said:

 

I wish it were true too. Luckily there will be more opportunities for rain as a tropical disturbance moves into the Gulf this weekend into early next week, should bring a slug of moisture with it and should favor lots of shower and storm activity. Fingers crossed 🤞

[sonoranfans]

Did get 2" of badly needed rain on the 17th and one inch plus on the 18th, doubling rainfall for the month.  A couple more day like that over the next two weeks and it might be an average august in terms of rainfall.  Dewpoints have been 76-82F lately, though mostly 78-82 for the month. and high temps are mid 90's.  Overnight lows were about 80F till the rain which dropped them to 77F this morning.  Palms are growing fast if I water them, might be the round the clock heat helping boost growth.  

[D. Morrowii]

Less than 1” here in August for me on the Central East. Meanwhile 15 miles North in Titusville they had 7” in the last week. Yesterday we got 0.49” bringing us up to 0.90”. Been crispy!

[flplantguy]

Im up to 3.2 inches this month after these last two days. Thrilled with the clouds and rainy weather i missed it.  I hope it keeps up like this and not the other way to get rain here whos name i wont say.

[Eric in Orlando]

I've gotten maybe a third of an inch this week at my house in Altamonte Springs. Enough for open locations but not for under tree canopy.

Last weekend we went hiking at 2 different preserves east and northeast of Orlando (near Bithlo and Geneva) looking for 2 rare wildflowers blooming now. They both grow in wet flatwoods habitat. Last year both spots had at least a couple inches of standing water and parts of the trails had big pools of standing water to detour around. This year no standing water anywhere at either location other than normal ponds. The soil was still boggy but no standing water.

[Jimbean]

Minor flooding in Palm Bay.  You guys can have it

[kinzyjr]

Had two rain events with half an inch of rain each.  That puts my location just over 2 inches for the month of August thus far. 

[PalmatierMeg]

8/20 0.7" , 8/21 0.13 in 3 brief showers throughout the day and night (probably rogue rain bands from Harold)

8/22 nada so far but nada was predicted. Daytime highs have climbed to 95+F again

[SubTropicRay]

The beat goes on.....

 

[PalmatierMeg]

95.9 at 3 p.m. No rain.

[kinzyjr]

Thankful for an unexpected third of an inch of rain today, but still under 3 inches of rain for a month in which Lakeland averages 9 inches of rain.  It doesn't look like this weather pattern is going to fully break unless we end up with a named storm or some other big weather event.  What a weird year!

[D. Morrowii]

40 minutes ago, kinzyjr said:

Thankful for an unexpected third of an inch of rain today, but still under 3 inches of rain for a month in which Lakeland averages 9 inches of rain.  It doesn't look like this weather pattern is going to fully break unless we end up with a named storm or some other big weather event.  What a weird year!

I’m still under 2” for this month. The water bill is going to be terrible 🙂

[kinzyjr]

Just now, D. Morrowii said:

I’m still under 2” for this month. The water bill is going to be terrible 🙂

How many days have you had over 100F?

[D. Morrowii]

5 minutes ago, kinzyjr said:

How many days have you had over 100F?

Thankfully 0, 98.5 is my high high

[Looking Glass]

The rain has now kind of settled down on this side.  It’s been sunny and hot also.  We are still up big time for the year, but I had to fire up the irrigation today.  The winds seem to prevail E to W lately, and no tropical storms lined up, so it’s looking dryer on the horizon lately. 

[JLM]

Will need to watch and see what this does over the coming days.

[flplantguy]

Hoping for a lopsided rainmaker but I'm doing a prep checkup today. New palms are staying inside I guess until the forecast clears up and they may get to meet their outside friends inside too.

[kinzyjr]

22 hours ago, D. Morrowii said:

Thankfully 0, 98.5 is my high high

I ended up with 7 days in August that were 100F+, with one more day that was 99.9F and 9 more over 95F.  Miserable to work outside.

[D. Morrowii]

On 8/23/2023 at 9:57 PM, Looking Glass said:

The rain has now kind of settled down on this side.  It’s been sunny and hot also.  We are still up big time for the year, but I had to fire up the irrigation today.  The winds seem to prevail E to W lately, and no tropical storms lined up, so it’s looking dryer on the horizon lately. 

So you're at about double your norm? Not too shabby. 

17 hours ago, kinzyjr said:

I ended up with 7 days in August that were 100F+, with one more day that was 99.9F and 9 more over 95F.  Miserable to work outside.

Yeah I like to refer to it as a mean heat. I had to work outdoors in it for a couple weeks around the end of July and it was brutal, It looks like we had 13 days over 90 with about half of those at or above 94-95. 

[PalmatierMeg]

8/22 nada; 8/23 nada; 8/24 nada; 8/25 nada (so far)

total accumulation for Aug (so far) = 3.6"

Will we luck out with the storm brewing down Yucatan-way?

Next name up: Italia          Beware the "I" storm!

[Zeeth]

I've pretty much given up on having a rainy season this year. Any rain that we've gotten has been brief and infrequent. I had to replace my mailbox today and I dug a hole for the new one and it was just bone-dry sand all the way down. 

[PalmatierMeg]

8/25 nada; 8/26 nada; 8/27 = 4” !!!

total thru 8/27 = 7.6”

What a difference a day makes

Now batten down the hatches for idalia

[flplantguy]

Even before she is here I'm up to .75 inches these last two days and who knows what idalia will bring.  Lost my other data on the system from a reset but we are close to normal now for the month already.  Crossing my fingers something impedes what's looking like yet another nasty one.

[Jimbean]

You guys are about to get a lot of rain.  I'll bet it makes landfall further south than expected as of the morning of  8/29/2023.

[Eric in Orlando]

Still no rain in Altamonte Springs, its been almost 5 weeks since there has been a measurable, soaking rain at my house. One of the suckiest summers ever, after 1998. 

 

 

[SubTropicRay]

Locally post-Idalia, we are still 12+ inches (305 mm) below normal.  There's an area of the Broward/Dade county line with upwards of 80" with 4 months to go in 2023.  As Paul Harvey would say, "it's not one world".

 

[flplantguy]

Idalia did little here I'm at half normal for August. That's below average every month this year so far. Can't win every year I guess.

[kinzyjr]

Ended up with over 5 inches of rain the last 3 days of August, so the total will look more like normal in the monthly records, but the reality on the ground was a little different.

[SubTropicRay]

And that brings to a close the rainy season that never started and here's the reason why.  The NAO was negative almost all summer meaning an east coast trough prevailed all season.  That trough was the mechanism for the persistent west wind.   Now that the east wind is in place with a positive NAO, we have unusually dry air for early September (surprise, surprise) and a tropical system moving east of the state next week.  That will create a dry week next week, killing what little rainy season we had left.  Glad it's over so I can stop hoping for rain.    

[Looking Glass]

It sucks when the rainy season, turns out to be the irrigation season.  Hot dry weather, intense sun, and sandy soil is a bad combination.  We lucked out on this side this year, but hand watering plus irrigating all the time other years blew.   

[flplantguy]

I was thinking the same thing that the non existent rainy season is over.  Sucks but hopefully it's a blip and next year follows climatology better.

[SubTropicRay]

You just have to laugh .....


.UPDATE...
Issued at 744 AM EDT Thu Sep 7 2023

It is another quiet start to the day across West Central and
Southwest Florida as most wake up to temps in the low-to-mid 70s.
There are a few coastal areas in the upper 70s to near 80 degrees
already this morning, though, as we start to make the transition to
a WSW flow once again. Gradually, moisture and additional
instability in the low-levels will return to the area through the
day. Already reviewing early 12Z sounding data, there is more depth
to moisture this morning. This deeper moisture has allowed a few
coastal storms to develop over nearshore waters along the land
breeze boundary. Instability and moisture is greater over the
waters; it`ll be really tough for any storms to hold together as
they get to the coast. Barrier Islands like Anna Maria and
Longboat Key might be able to get a brief shower, though.
Otherwise, it looks like rain chances start to increase areawide
into tomorrow and beyond, but the overall pattern suggests the
best potential for storms will most likely end up being across the
interior and east coast.

[SeanK]

Today in Tarpon Springs, the second rain of the day just passed. First one at 8 AM was a light rain for 40 minutes, this one sorter but heavier with wind.

[Jimbean]

[SeanK]

Hopefully, everyone from NPR to Naples got some.