For some, Florida drought is getting very "extreme"

[kinzyjr]

Not a bunch better than some of the low totals above, but it has been spaced out enough that the grass and rest of the garden is relatively green.  The number of days over 90F are measured with a fan-aspirated station.  The non fan-aspirated station has recorded higher temperatures with more regularity as one would expect.

[Eric in Orlando]

I always wonder if large hot urban concrete islands disrupt the seabreezes? I have really noticed in the last 10-12 years around Orlando, an advancing line of storms from the west/NW break up lots of times when they hit the "urban heat island". But a lot of times they blow up big east of Orlando. East of Orlando is the St. John's River, lots of trees/moisture/water. They always track east NE then and northern Merritt Island/Eldora get heavy storms. In my mind all the clear cutting/murder of forests and concrete leaves little moisture for these storms to feed on over the urban area.

Another thing that seems to have changed recently is the storm direction and timing. It used to be storms mainly formed around 330/4-6 and came from the west/NW a majority of the time. Now its seems like they come from a different direction every day and at earlier times or way later in the evening. Just my observations.

[SubTropicRay]

[SubTropicRay]

Not a drop for 9 days.  

[Looking Glass]

1 hour ago, SubTropicRay said:

Not a drop for 9 days.  

We’ve moved into the red now.  It’s pretty bad.  I think this is the first time in the red, since I’ve lived at the house.  I’m concentrating on hand watering the non-native/non Cuban palms, and crotons, to keep them alive.   Crotons are starting to drop their leaves despite the extra TLC.  Palms are yellowing a bit, even with irrigation 3x per week.  We pretty badly need some rain in the next few days.  

[Eric in Orlando]

We finally got about 2.5" on Tues., a good heavy storm followed by a nice steady rain. But nothing since. If its like this summers pattern, that is it for another 2 weeks.

 

[D. Morrowii]

Thankfully there is a new pattern forming over the last 10 days, we seem to be getting 3/4” every 3 days. Hopefully that continues here. 

[kinzyjr]

By comparison, I can't complain.  Even if the volume of rain isn't quite what I was expecting, it cools things off quite a bit when it clouds up.  That keeps us from getting into the 100F's routinely like two years ago.

[SeanK]

On 8/1/2025 at 9:10 AM, Eric in Orlando said:

I always wonder if large hot urban concrete islands disrupt the seabreezes? I have really noticed in the last 10-12 years around Orlando, an advancing line of storms from the west/NW break up lots of times when they hit the "urban heat island". But a lot of times they blow up big east of Orlando. East of Orlando is the St. John's River, lots of trees/moisture/water. They always track east NE then and northern Merritt Island/Eldora get heavy storms. In my mind all the clear cutting/murder of forests and concrete leaves little moisture for these storms to feed on over the urban area.

Another thing that seems to have changed recently is the storm direction and timing. It used to be storms mainly formed around 330/4-6 and came from the west/NW a majority of the time. Now its seems like they come from a different direction every day and at earlier times or way later in the evening. Just my observations.

I never expect a sea breeze in central Florida. Too far away.  Coastal areas are okay in the summer. Places like Orlando never get a cool breeze on the hot days.

[HudsonBill]

I wish it would stop raining. Get home from work and it rains all night everyday. 

[kinzyjr]

3 hours ago, HudsonBill said:

I wish it would stop raining. Get home from work and it rains all night everyday. 

If it worked this way, I would gladly take the rainfall off your hands.  

[sonoranfans]

2.5" overnight friday through saturday..  Puddles in the yard this morning too.  THere was a several dry days last week but just when I think about watering we get hit.  The growth in my palms has been very encouraging after the nasty 110 mph (max) hit by Milton last year.   Street signs were flattened to the ground and dicots tilted or knocked down all around my neighborhood.   Another 0.5" is expected today .  I have no complaints about rain, love the cooler temps and growth of my palms.  It appears to be an average year here with 33" so far.

[Looking Glass]

Was hoping for some decent rain this week, but ended up with about 0.3 inches only.    Big blobs of heavy rain were moving through the area, but seemed to be deflected on radar at the last minute by an invisible forcefield near the coast here.  

We’ve been experiencing “mean reversion” the last 1.5 years.   In 2023, this area got 115 inches of rain in 1 year.  Now, for 2024 & 2025, it’s been mostly drought conditions.   Perhaps another year of drought brings the average total of those years back, closer, to historical averages.   We are still about 30% below average for this year.  

[PalmatierMeg]

We are now -12.5" low on rainfall for the summer. Everyone around us is getting bountiful rain but our house has a no-rain-allowed dome over it. By contrast, on Pine Island to our immediate west St. James City has received 10+" of rain in the past 24 hours. And Bokeelia on the north end of PI has received 15+" in the last 24 hours. We need a break - August is half over.

[HudsonBill]

My yard is completely flooded worse than milton......  this summer is horrible. It never stops raining. 

[flplantguy]

Its funny, but everywhere else in pasco is getting hammered but its the edge for me each time but this weekend.  I don't mind the heavy downpours here, but much of pasco is close to the water table and doesnt handle it so well.  It seems to me that the pattern isnt the same for the whole state in recent years, way too much in one spot and too little everywhere else, instead of that nice line of storms moving across the state.

[SubTropicRay]

Another 3-5" anticipated amount by NOAA ended up barely over 1".   it was another in a series of overblown, overhyped "saturating" rain events this year.

[SubTropicRay]

14 hours ago, HudsonBill said:

My yard is completely flooded worse than milton......  this summer is horrible. It never stops raining. 

Sorry you appear to be in the crosshairs.  That said, you are definitely in the minority.  

[SubTropicRay]

I've had one day with rainfall over the last 2 weeks.  No significant signs of relief in sight.

 

[SubTropicRay]

[kinzyjr]

8 hours ago, SubTropicRay said:

I've had one day with rainfall over the last 2 weeks.  No significant signs of relief in sight.

My spot is in the brown streak now.  Last night, there was thunder and lightning from 8pm until almost midnight, but no measurable precipitation.  The night before made up for it, though.  We received 2" of rain just after midnight.

[sonoranfans]

90F and raining hard enough now to make driving difficult.  Big boomers last night woke me up midnight and this morning the yard was very wet, now its getting very wet again.  I look at the weather, and it seems to fail to detect when we are going to get this rain. 

[Looking Glass]

Still horrible out.  I’m in this tiny bit of red.  

[Rubberboots]

5 hours ago, Looking Glass said:

Still horrible out.  I’m in this tiny bit of red.  

What's the temperature 🤔

[Looking Glass]

6 hours ago, Rubberboots said:

What's the temperature 🤔

Low 90s during the day, mid to low 80s at night.   
Not crazy by Western US standards, but we have lawns and tropical vegetation that is more accustomed to wet-hot summers, not dry hot ones.  

The problem is the randomness of the summer rain blobs.   Without hurricanes and tropical storms blanketing the area, its blobs of wet season rains moving through that are hit or miss.   This year, mostly miss, near the coast here.   We could use a big tropical system, but none to be found this year yet.  

[kinzyjr]

11 hours ago, Looking Glass said:

Low 90s during the day, mid to low 80s at night.   
Not crazy by Western US standards, but we have lawns and tropical vegetation that is more accustomed to wet-hot summers, not dry hot ones.  

The problem is the randomness of the summer rain blobs.   Without hurricanes and tropical storms blanketing the area, its blobs of wet season rains moving through that are hit or miss.   This year, mostly miss, near the coast here.   We could use a big tropical system, but none to be found this year yet.  

We've been getting a lot of the treatment you get.  It clouds up until it's almost pitch black, thunder shakes the house, lightning blows up a transformer, and then - no rain and the sun comes back out.

[SubTropicRay]

14 hours ago, kinzyjr said:

We've been getting a lot of the treatment you get.  It clouds up until it's almost pitch black, thunder shakes the house, lightning blows up a transformer, and then - no rain and the sun comes back out.

18 days into August and rainfall at my place is still less than 2".   That equates to 2 days of rainfall over the span of 17 days.  Pathetic.

[SubTropicRay]

This is the same garbage this website puts out on a regular basis.

[SubTropicRay]

 

 

[SubTropicRay]

[sonoranfans]

GOt hit with 3 sepa4rate showers this morning, one was heavy.  My ph0one says 1/4",  felt like more.  There was no rain predicted till 35% chance at 3PM.  The florida weather is often not well predicted.

[Eric in Orlando]

Still dry in Altamonte Springs. Had a big rain last Sat and then nothing but a few sprinkles all this week. I've given up on summer and just run the irrigation on a daily basis.

 

[sonoranfans]

More rain overnight local station says 0.25'" and some brief showers this morning.  82F now and more(0.35") rain expected in about an hour.  

[kinzyjr]

We had two rain events today that dropped roughly 0.25 in. each.  That headed off the soil drying out and becoming hydrophobic for a while.  The bulk of Lakeland is probably still in the brown drought area.

[Looking Glass]

Finally a little rain today.   Hope for more of this Cape Coral backwash as it heads across the state.  

[flplantguy]

Between yesterday and today i got 3.3 inches of rain, after 11 days without. The averages for florida look nice until reality sets in, then it all crumbles into reality. Long range says more to come, we shall see.

[sonoranfans]

half inch each of the previous two days, its on and off today currently raining pretty hard, puddles all around.

[sonoranfans]

0.85" last 24 hrs 1.8" next 24 hrs says my phone.  Raining hard now with big boomers.  Puddles are all over.  We dont need this, too bad we cant save it for later.

moments ago

[SubTropicRay]

2" over the weekend has made the situation a little better going forward.  I'm still a few inches short of normal for August

[HudsonBill]

On 8/23/2025 at 6:56 PM, flplantguy said:

Between yesterday and today i got 3.3 inches of rain, after 11 days without. The averages for florida look nice until reality sets in, then it all crumbles into reality. Long range says more to come, we shall see.

Ive gotten over 13 inches in July and im at 9 inches so far in August. It's so wet and nasty it's insane. Yard is flooded killed a few palms mango and avacodo trees are starting to suffer and it won't end.