The recent rain has alleviated the drought conditions across our area and our state.

  • Recent rain alleviates drought conditions across Florida
  • Polk County lifted their burn ban June 9
  • Tampa, Orlando received 3 inches of rain over past 8 days
  • Latest weather forecast

The extreme drought in Polk County is now gone. While the updated Drought Index released yesterday still shows a Severe Drought for Tampa Bay and most of Central Florida, and a Moderate Drought for Hernando and Citrus Counties, it only takes into account the rainfall until Tuesday morning, June 6.

Each week the U.S. Drought Monitor releases an update on Thursday, but the data cutoff is Tuesday at 8 a.m.  So the effects of the rainfall from Tuesday afternoon through Thursday were not used in this week’s report.

I expect to see an even bigger improvement reflected in next week’s map, not only because of the inches of rain that fell in Tampa Bay the last few days, but because more rain is in the forecast this weekend and early next week.

From June 1 through June 8, Tampa and Orlando received 3 inches of rain and Bradenton had almost 5 inches of rain. Other parts of the region reported even higher amounts.

Lakeland and Winter Haven got almost 6 inches of rain and Clearwater almost 7 inches of rain in just the last 8 days.

For the rest of the state, Southeast Florida and the Florida panhandle are not in a drought.

Miami had more than 10 inches of rain fall this week. Fort Lauderdale picked up 9.50 inches of rain through June 8 and Tallahassee has had more than 8 inches of rain so far this month.

Thanks to the beneficial rains, Polk County ended its burn ban today, June 9. The ban was issued on March 31 due to the dangerous fire conditions across the county.

Other Bay area counties also issued burn bans due to the dry conditions and wildfires in the spring.