TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) — Just last week, all eyes were on the Gulf watching what would later become Tropical Storm Cindy.
Even though this storm tracked towards the Louisiana coast, some of the outer rain bands moved over much of our region.
This extra rain, in addition to the very wet weather from earlier in the month, has led to decreased drought conditions throughout parts of north Florida and south Georgia.
That’s about six inches more than we see in a typical June.
But what does that all mean for the drought conditions in our area?
"It’s great for the farmers because it means they don’t have to run their pumps and irrigate their crops nearly as much, so that’s a big money saver for them," says Brett Cyphers, the Executive Director, Northwest Florida Water Management District.
"From our perspective, we own 220-thousand acres of land throughout northwest Florida.
When it rains and we’re out of a drought, we can go out and manage those lands properly."
June is just the beginning of the southeast’s "Rainy Season."
The deadline to apply is June 24, 2017.

Drought emergency declared in 19 Montana counties, 2 reservations.
HELENA – Gov.
Parts of these counties have seen record low precipitation, high temperatures, and excessive wind in the last two months, state officials said.
These conditions rapidly deteriorated crop and forage viability after a winter of below average precipitation.
Crops such as oats, spring wheat, edible dry peas, and sugar beets are all suffering, officials said.
In addition, pasture and range conditions are poor to very poor, per the June 18 Crop Progress Report.
Ranchers reported extreme dust has made it difficult to keep track of all head, even during branding.
Bullock said farmers and ranchers from many eastern communities are feeling the impacts of drought conditions.
He said his administration is committed to making sure impacts are minimized and will continue to work closely with these communities to monitor conditions and provide further assistance.
Earlier Friday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture authorized emergency grazing on Conservation Reserve Program lands in Montana.

Drought conditions increase fire risk for ND.
Drought conditions are making many areas of North Dakota vulnerable to fires, prompting the state Forest Service to closely watch the threat level and prepare to deploy firefighting resources to areas that need help.
Ryan Melin, fire manager for the North Dakota Forest Service, said indicators that predict the potential for fire and its severity are more serious now than in previous years in June.
North Dakota Gov.
Burgum, who discussed the drought Thursday during the State Water Commission meeting, said he’s strongly encouraging all cities and counties to take a hard look at banning fireworks and open fires, something many communities have already adopted.
“We’ve got some real fire risk potentially coming,” Burgum said.
Information about current burn restrictions is available at NDResponse.gov, along with other drought information.
Burgum also ordered the formation of a unified command structure with the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services, Department of Agriculture and other state agencies to coordinate the state’s drought response.
Meanwhile, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue released Conservation Reserve Program acres in North Dakota for emergency grazing, Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring said Friday.
Burgum’s drought declaration also activated the drought disaster livestock water supply program for 26 North Dakota counties.

Georgia Drought Improves, But Lake Lanier Is Still Low.
At the beginning of the year, most of Georgia was in drought.
Now, less than a third of the state is drier than usual.
But there are still water use rules in place in metro Atlanta, even though the drought has improved dramatically.
“We are looking better,” Jac Capp, chief of the water branch of Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division, said.
But, “Lake Lanier, which is the primary source of drinking water for much of the metro Atlanta area — either from the lake directly, or from releases from the lake — the lake is still 6 1/2 feet below fill pool.” Until the lake level looks better and streams flowing into the lake are higher, restrictions will likely stick around, including on lawn watering, car washing, and ornamental fountains.
“We’re not short on water by any stretch of the imagination,” Capp said.
“We still feel like it makes sense to have some additional conservation measures in place, to insure that our water sources are protected and secure.”

Fails to meet state mandates, says Restore the Delta From Restore the Delta: The Delta Stewardship Council (DSC) endorsed proposed conveyance and storage amendments to the Delta Plan today.
These agencies have demanded that the Council take actions to endorse the Delta Tunnels project, and that’s what the amendments do.” “If the DSC decides eventually to integrate these conveyance and storage amendments as currently drafted into the Delta Plan as proposed, progress on protecting the San Francisco-Bay Delta will be set back decades.
Under no scenario, could an isolated diversion project like the Delta Tunnels be built and operated in a manner that would leave the Delta environment and communities intact.” U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Sonoma County Water Agency sign $6.3 million cost-sharing agreement for Dry Creek Project Corps will pay 75% of costs for habitat enhancement work in 2018 (Santa Rosa, CA) – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) and the Sonoma County Water Agency (Water Agency) signed an agreement this week on a cost-sharing agreement for construction of a $6.3 million portion of the Dry Creek Habitat Enhancement Project.
To date, nearly two miles of habitat enhancement work has been completed, with another half mile of work under contract for construction in 2017.
The agreement with the Corps will add an additional third of a mile of construction in 2018.
The Russian River Biological Opinion requires habitat enhancement of six miles of Dry Creek to improve summer rearing conditions for endangered coho salmon and threatened steelhead while allowing the Water Agency to maintain existing flows in Dry Creek for water supply purposes.
“Signing this Project Partnership Agreement brings us one step closer toward achieving the goals of the Russian River Biological Opinion.” The habitat enhancement project is part of the Russian River Biological Opinion that requires the Water Agency to enhance six miles of the 14-mile length of Dry Creek in order to slow the high water velocity in the creek, which was found to be detrimental to the survival of young Coho salmon and steelhead.
To learn more about the Dry Creek Habitat Enhancement Project, please visit www.sonomacountywater.org/drycreek/ Weekly Water and Climate Update: Record breaking temperatures across the Southwest this week From the USDA: The Natural Resources Conservation Service produces this weekly report using data and products from the National Water and Climate Center and other agencies.
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——————— About News Worth Noting: News Worth Noting is a collection of press releases, media statements, and other materials produced by federal, state, and local government agencies, water agencies, and academic institutions, as well as non-profit and advocacy organizations.

On California, the drought and the ‘yuck factor’.
David Sedlak: Our water systems bring water into our cities from great distances, and that means we need lots of infrastructure—dams, reservoirs, treatment plants and pipes.
Are these water recycling systems already being used in the state?
There are several of these advanced treatment plants in California.
It’s likely they’ll have a potable recycling project up and running in the coming decade.
The constructed wetlands that we’ve spent the most time studying is a system in Riverside County on the Santa Ana River called the Prado Wetlands.
We’re currently in the process of conducting experiments in support of several different types of wetland treatment systems that are being considered in the Bay Area.
Will climate change affect the country’s water supply?
But the problem is the kinds of solutions that are needed to deal with the drought often require a long time to build, so it’s hard to build a new water supply over night.
But very few people currently own them in California.

Should scientists pinpoint the places most likely to see faster than average warming or wetter winters, or should they combine expected physical changes with countries’ vulnerability?
The World Resources Institute concurred in 2015 that the Mediterranean basin was a climate hotspot when it placed 14 of the world’s 33 most water-stressed countries in 2040 in the Middle East and North Africa region.
“In the next 20 years we would expect five to 10 million people to have to move from the coastal areas,” says Saleemul Huq, director of the Bangladesh-based International Centre for Climate Change and Development.
It is a climate change phenomenon and not something we had before.” Huq leads research into how Bangladesh can adapt to climate change.
Long-term climate data in southern Africa is sparse, but studies backed by oral evidence from villagers confirm the region is a climate hotspot where droughts are becoming more frequent, rains less regular, food supplies less certain, and the dry spells and floods are lasting longer.
With more than 90% of Malawi and the region depending on rain-fed agriculture, it does not need scientists to tell people that the climate is changing.
The climate is changing.
Conversely, a study of 11 west African countries from the International Food Policy Research Institute expects some farmers to be able to grow more food as temperatures rise and rainfall increases.
The most city authorities can do is plant trees to cool the streets and protect the river banks from flooding.
“The challenge now is to rapidly adapt farming to climate change with modern varieties and feed a fast-growing global population, half of which depends on rice as a staple food.

BISMARCK, N.D. — Parts of North Dakota, Montana and South Dakota now are considered in extreme drought.
Extreme drought is the second worst category of drought after exceptional drought on the U.S. Drought Monitor.
The June 20 U.S. Drought Monitor, released June 22, showed 7.73 percent of North Dakota, 6.37 percent of Montana and 2.07 percent of South Dakota in extreme drought.
North Dakota also has 32.17 percent of its land in severe drought, 27.44 percent in moderate drought and 32.64 percent considered abnormally dry.
In North Dakota, the worst conditions earlier were in the central part of the state, but the June 22 release shows drought spreading and worsening throughout western North Dakota.
Bruce Schmidt, North Dakota State University Burleigh County ag and natural resource agent, says Burleigh County and other hard-hit areas received some rain, more than 2 inches in places, but counties to the west weren’t as lucky.
Montana’s worst conditions remain in the northeast, while South Dakota’s worst conditions remain in the north.
"The cool season grasses never received that April or May showers and because of that, we just missed out on that growing season completely," he explains.
Corn ranges from good to marginal, but the question whether it will make grain or have to be used as silage remains, Schmidt says.
Small grains are very short and are heading out, so some producers are thinking of cutting and baling it for livestock forage for themselves or to sell, Schmidt says.

Recent rainfall douses fears of drought for St. Johns County.
Above-average rainfall totals over the last month have elevated St. Johns County above moderate drought conditions, with wildfire warnings and burn bans being lifted and the local water table showing recovery.
According to the National Weather Service, from late-May through the first three weeks of June the region west of Interstate 95 received from 10 to as much as 15 inches of rain, which is considered about twice the norm for this time of year.
Areas east of I-95 saw a total of between 5 and 8 inches of rain.
“It’s been a pretty prolific last 30 days of rainfall,” said Ben Nelson, a meteorologist with the Jacksonville office of the National Weather Service.
Nelson said in St. Johns County the recent soaking was more than enough to help relieve the drought.
“Usually, when we get upwards of 10-plus inches of rain you’d see it go toward flooding and that’s just not the case.” Statewide, Florida is beginning to inch toward more normal rainfall totals, according to the National Weather Service.
Nelson said it was difficult to predict what the rest of the summer might bring since rainstorms are dependent at this point in the season on sea breeze patterns, tropical surges and other factors.
“We feel very good about what these rains have meant in alleviating the severe fire conditions,” said Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, whose department includes the Florida Forest Service.
“And now, in true Florida fashion, we can go from one extreme to the other and prepare for tropical storm activity.” The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.

Starvation looms as food runs out in drought-hit Ethiopia.
The Somali people of Ethiopia’s southeast have a name for the drought that has killed livestock, dried up wells and forced hundreds of thousands into camps: sima, which means "equalized".
It’s an appropriate name, they say, because this drought has left no person untouched, spared no corner of their arid region.
Droughts are common in Ethiopia, and in past years the government and international community have mounted impressive efforts to curb starvation.
"After that, we don’t know what’s going to happen."
Health indicators such as infant mortality and malaria deaths have also improved.
A stronger economy allowed Ethiopia to spend an impressive $766 million (683 million euros) fighting one of its worst droughts in decades in 2015-16.
This year however, things are different.
Economic growth has slowed, due in part to protests spurred by long-simmering grievances against Ethiopia’s one-party state.
Ethiopia by contrast has a strong central government and is relatively free from conflict.