Drought — Inland Palm Beach, Florida

2007-04-01 to 2007-04-30 · Inland Palm Beach, Florida

Event narrative

Well-below normal winter and spring rainfall along with a prolonged period of dry weather going back to early 2006 caused for severe drought conditions to spread southward across South Florida. As of April 24th, all of Glades and Hendry counties, as well as northwestern Palm Beach County was under D3 (extreme) drought status. Most of the remainder of Palm Beach County as well as northern sections of Collier and northwestern sections of Broward counties were under D2 (severe) drought status.

By the end of April, Naples had received only 2.93 inches of rain for the year, 36 percent of normal. Fort Lauderdale, Clewiston and Belle Glade stood around 20 inches below normal precipitation since January 2006, about 65 percent of normal.

The level of Lake Okeechobee lowered further to 9.8 feet by April 27th, about 4.5 feet below average and the lowest level since May 2001. Impacts spread from strictly agricultural interest to the general public as water usage restrictions were placed across South Florida. The Lake Okeechobee region was placed under Phase 3 restrictions (50 percent reduction in usage) while the rest of South Florida was under Phase 2 restrictions (30 percent reduction).

Wider weather episode

A dry spring across South Florida combined with a prolonged period of below normal rainfall going back to early 2006 produced drought conditions across a large part of South Florida.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 37830. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.