ORLANDO, Fla. – As you may imagine with the recent heavy rain, all of Central Florida and most of the Sunshine State are officially no longer in a drought.
The past few weeks, largely driven by the return of sea breeze storms and Tropical Storm Cristobal, have seen copious amounts of rain.
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At times the rain has caused minor flooding, but largely the rain has been beneficial. Tropical Storm Cristobal last weekend added to the rainfall of late. Cristobal’s rain especially helped the drought situation in the Panhandle, where now only a sliver of drought remains in the far western-most counties.
Since the start of June, most of Central Florida has seen above-average rainfall.
For the year, most of Central Florida is still anywhere from 3-6″ below normal. The exception to this is Melbourne and parts of Brevard County, which saw rounds of heavy rain in May. At the height of the drought, some cities were more than 7″ below normal in the rainfall department.
Last week, 40% of Florida was considered abnormally dry. This week that number has fallen to less than 4%. The moderate drought category, which none of Central Florida was in last week, dropped to less than one percent statewide.