According to the long range and weekly forecast the tap will shut off for most of the area for much of the rest of the month. 4 weeks of decent rains got the weeds going and some growth on plants but the palms always seem to be playing catch up. Part of that is winter damage setting them back, but the summer pattern (at least here) is only a little bit helpful. I have started on a better irrigation system using the well, but cant finish until winter, so i was hoping the rainy pattern would keep up. Maybe the winter rainfall will be helpful; the outlook is for wet, but also cold, so im skeptical right now.

and now for the famine.....

It was a good almost 2 weeks for near normal summer rain here but barring tropical systems I think the summer rainy season is done. Non irrigated yards will be dry by Friday.

4 hours ago, Eric in Orlando said:

It was a good almost 2 weeks for near normal summer rain here but barring tropical systems I think the summer rainy season is done. Non irrigated yards will be dry by Friday.

You think the rainy season is already done? So now the rainy season is 3 weeks long? I'm being out negatived. Didn't think that was possible. 🙃

My feeling it is,I hope I'm wrong. Theres no more than 20-30% chance or rain for here the next 7 days and mid 90s. I think thats the pattern unless some tropical systems poke around. Its been a bust here for the normal, non-tropical system storms forming. June and July were ridiculous dry at my house and August only got rainy because of that tropical moisture that came in from the Bahamas. If this continues into next summer I will be doing major relandscaping next summer.

We had a decent 2 weeks but now everything recently shut off again also. Clear sky’s and no rains again. Exposed grass is dying despite irrigation. It’s just too hot and dry out in the open. Even after early morning irrigation, things are browning up that are exposed. I went out tonight to soak all the crotons which are wilting by early afternoon now. This will be the 3rd year in a row without a wet season to speak of. August looks to be a hot, dry bust.

Hope now seems to lie with tropical systems as we approach peak hurricane months.

This is how to erase premature excitement about ending a drought

Back to hand watering everyday. What happend to the climate in the state? Why is it so insanely hunid but so dry? In pa if it got this hunid it rained always. Here it's just insane hunid with 0 rain.

I'm inclined to think Eric is right The rainy season may have ended even earlier than last year.

everything dried out since last sunday, no precipitation but the irrigation system got its once a week water thurs. But today at 1pm till 3pm we got once inch of rain. Clouds from noon till now have kept it a little cooler, currently 80F and weather radar looks like we might get some more and and to the north of us.

Extra dry conditions will be followed by another round of west wind....no es bueno

no rain since last friday. Its dry here, the familiar hot and dry of the late spring and early summer. We are in drought but all the containment ponds have been just about full for a week. The canal is high and slow moving. A few months ago I could see the drought from the low levels of the containment ponds and canal. At my place its feast or famine on the rain and its much less frequent than I remember. We had 4 heavy rainfall days the last month or so, and ~24 totally dry days. This needs to change soon. but at least we are supposed to be getting some cloud cover in the afternoon today.

It’s 96 out again. This is insanity. Not a cloud in the sky day, after day. You cannot irrigate your way out of this when the ground is sand.

All-time record high for Miami and Fort Lauderdale is 100F. I always find that odd as every state I’ve lived in prior to South Florida hits temps higher than this… Even up north. The difference is the duration, and the months of night time tropical heat down here without a break.

Miami hit 100F yesterday and Fort Lauderdale hit 98F, night time lows in the 80s. Dry as a bone. Local AC units seem to be dropping like flies after months of this. Mine went down the other day. Indoor temps of 92+ at night for 3 days, til it could be fixed. Supposed rainy pattern on the way as Saharan dust moves out now.

Almost two-thirds of the way through the month and my rain total sits at ~1.5in. Follow that up with more than a week of days in the high-90s and the grass that isn't getting any shade is starting to wilt.

The rain and storms right now are insane in western pasco county. Areas that have been dry are getting nailed tonight. My weather station picked up a 6 inch an hour rainfall rate.

 

2.25 inches of rain here tonight. It's still raining lightly. Brings me up to 5.5 inches for August so far.

That same storm gave me a drenching 0.09". I was almost washed away 😤

The lightning and thunder last night was the most intense ive seen since i moved here. 1.75 inches isnt the most in a storm, but a significant amount still- especially this summer. Hopefully rainy season comes back for a little while until october and doesnt leave the first day of the month.

Epic lightning and thunder last night at 2-3AM, woke me up. I looked at the radar and it raining north of here between here and tampa. As it approached my place, the radar image of precipitation just vanished. Then 15-20 minutes later, the thunder roared and rumbled to the south. I am hoping rain fell in substantial amounts somewhere nearby to help relieve the drought. At my place the accumulated rainfall was so little, it didnt wet the bottom of my straight walled rain gage bucket. I'll call it getting spit on, 0.0x whatever. Still I am hoping it fell and accumulated somewhere so we can get back to normal irrigation schedules.

The rainfall pattern has definitely been interesting this year even in the Panhandle. July was quite dry compared to average (supposed to be the wettest month of the year). Finished out July with 4.23". August has been much better so far and things continue to look decent in the rain department after we take a couple day long break starting likely tomorrow. Current total for August is sitting at 6.83" pending anymore rain tonight and also the medium to high rain chances that start up in the middle of next week.
The last several days have honestly been exceptional. It has rained everyday since the 15th, with daily amounts varying. The storms have also been intense particularly with the lightning. Heres my daily totals since the 15th:
8/15 - 0.26"
8/16 - 0.12"
8/17 - 0.47"
8/18 - 0.90"
8/19 - 1.30"
8/20 - 1.74"
8/21 (Today so far) - 0.54"

I have added 1 inch to the total for 8/20. This could very well be an underestimate. The power tried to go out at the beginning of the storm, which caused the internet to go out. For whatever reason, this caused the rain gauge to stop reporting during the heaviest part of the storm. The gauge did not report for at least 25 minutes. While other nearby stations were reporting rainfall rates up to 4 inches per hour, my station was reporting no rainfall. It was quite aggravating to say the least. The same thing may have happened on 8/19, the power actually did fully go out *twice* during that storm, but i have not had the chance to review other nearby stations to try to make an estimate for a more realistic total for that date. The palms are definitely happy, except for the Trachy. I cant seem to water that thing enough.

There has been a lot of cloud cover, thunder, and lightning here. The only thing we didn't get was the rain.

Close to another inch today. Just had a random storm pop up. Power went out and all.