Worst Drought in History Leaves Florida High and Dry

Worst Drought in History Leaves Florida High and Dry

NewsMax.com Wires
Thursday, March 1, 2001

MIAMI (UPI) – Florida's worst drought on record is entering its fourth year, and scientists don't know when it will end.

"This is a huge problem. This is a 100-year drought that impacts in many ways that go beyond what we're used to as it relates to water," Gov. Jeb Bush said at a conference he called Tuesday to discuss ways to deal with the problem.

Even the rainy season, which usually starts in late May, might not be enough. It wasn't last year, or the year before.

"It's just too soon to say when it will be over completely. It will take a long time for enough rain to accumulate to overcome the deficits," said Douglas LeComte, a senior meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center in Maryland.

So problems due to a lack of water continue to plague the state. Since Jan. 1, there have been 1,400 fires covering 93,000 acres.

The biggest attention-getter so far has been the nearly 11,000-acre fire in Polk County that closed busy Interstate 4 between Orlando and Tampa for 10 days. A 150-acre fire threatened homes in suburban Miami-Dade County over the weekend.

In addition, heightened irrigation requirements are costing farmers. Homeowners were told this week they may water their lawns only once a week, a restriction that is being largely ignored in many neighborhoods.

Outdoor burning was banned in the southern two-thirds of the state starting Tuesday, although outdoor grilling is still OK.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has pledged to pay the bills for fighting fires in 12 central Florida counties once the bill has topped $1.5 million.

The National Climate Data Center said 2000 was Florida's driest year on record. During the last two years, 64.17 inches of rain fell at Tampa International Airport – 23 inches less than normal. That makes 1999 and 2000 the driest consecutive years on record in the Tampa Bay area.

The National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska has designated central Florida under "exceptional drought," making the state the only one in the nation with the lowest possible rating.

"We've had three years of drought conditions, and each year it gets worse and the fires start earlier, and now our water resources are impaired and also we're in a very dangerous situation," said Bush, who declared a state emergency Saturday.

The drought dates back to March 1998, about the time of the development of La Niña, a phenomenon that starts with cooler waters in the Pacific Ocean off Peru and alters jet streams and weather patterns in the Western Hemisphere.

La Niña replaced its warm-water brother, El Niño. Forecasters say they can't tell what will happen next, but LeComte said there was a possibility of a neutral condition in the Pacific this season that is acquiring the name "La Nada," Spanish for nothing. That could produce more rainfall in Florida.

Miami forecaster Jim Lushine said that kind of long-range forecasting was not really possible for Florida because of its penchant for quick, unpredictable changes. For one thing, no one was forecasting a drought until it had already settled in.

On the upside, the state is better prepared to control fires than it was in 1998. Fires that summer ignited at the rate of 100 a day for six weeks. A half-million acres were consumed, destroying 300 homes. About 10,000 firefighters from across the nation were called in.

Since then, the state Division of Forestry has bought $27 million worth of firefighting equipment and added 70 firefighters for "quick-attack, quick-suppression teams" using helicopters.