Florida Drought Coverage Drops Nearly 60 Percent in Two Weeks.
Florida’s drought coverage decreased by nearly 60 percent following heavy rains across the Sunshine State during June’s first full week.
How did the majority of Florida’s drought get wiped out in just two weeks’ time?
It’s simple – portions of South Florida have averaged an inch or more of rain per day over the past two weeks, and other parts of the state have not been far behind.
Another 4.57 inches fell June 7, followed by 3.12 inches on June 8, yielding a three-day total of 17.37 inches from June 6 through June 8.
An average June would feature 4.40 inches of rain on Marco Island, and it picked up more than four times that amount with half the month remaining.
latest three-month precipitation outlook for July through September from NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center shows equal chances of above- and below-average precipitation for the entire state of Florida.
(MORE: Why Pop-Up Summer Thunderstorms Are Among the Hardest Weather to Predict) Brian Donegan is a digital meteorologist at weather.com.
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MORE ON WEATHER.COM: Florida Storms and Flooding

The report Confronting Drought in Africa’s Drylands: Opportunities for Enhancing Resilience aims to advance measures to reduce the vulnerability and enhance the resilience of populations living in dryland areas of Sub-Saharan Africa.
First, our research revealed that better management of livestock, agriculture and natural resources could help enhance people’s resilience in the face of challenges.
For example, in 2010 only 30 percent of pastoralist and agro-pastoralist households in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa possessed enough livestock assets to stay out of poverty in the face of recurrent droughts.
Productivity-enhancing interventions could protect livestock-keeping households and increase the area’s number of resilient households by 50 percent.
Secondly, improved crop production technologies, soil fertility management and adding trees to farms can also deliver resilience benefits by boosting agricultural productivity and increasing drought and heat tolerance of crops.
Trees can also improve households’ food and livelihood security by providing food when crops and animal-source foods become unavailable, and providing assets that can be cut and sold in times of need.
Irrigation can also provide an important buffer against droughts, particularly in the less arid parts of the drylands.
We estimate that the cost of well-targeted, location-specific technical interventions would amount to US$ 0.4 million to 1.3 billion per year.
Even under a best case scenario for the spread of these resilience-enhancing interventions, a significant share of the population living in drylands will remain vulnerable to shocks for the foreseeable future.
For this reason, on the occasion of World Day to Combat Desertification, it is important to remember that enduring solutions will require comprehensive approaches that attack the problem on a number of fronts.

Richland County is a green mecca as crops are on track with seasonal averages.
Many farmers and ranchers in North Dakota will not pull a second cut from ditches or fields as grass and alfalfa is withering in the fields.
Eighty-four percent of the state is experiencing moderate drought and now 13.5 percent is in a severe drought, according to the U.S. drought monitor map.
Richland is in a moderate drought since the region has not received adequate precipitation the past there months.
The absence of moisture in April, May and June is severely impacting pastures for cattle producers, while crops in central and south-central North Dakota are barely making a stand in overly dry soil.
“Keep in mind the spring of 2017 was the ninth driest of the 123 years of recorded history.
That’s a big deal,” Akyuz said It’s hard to think drought after the region was pummeled by rain Tuesday, but North Dakota still has a long way to go to recover from a lack of normal precipitation.
On average, the southeastern corner of the state received an average of 1 1/2 inches of rain in one day, which still isn’t enough to circumvent the moderate drought, although it may lessen the overall severity in Richland, Akyuz said.
Farmers and ranchers in drought ravaged areas of the state watched the radar to track Tuesday’s massive storm that started in South Dakota and swept northeast.
The drought is dire in many parts of the state, prompting some farmers and ranchers to take drastic measures to feed livestock.

Investigative thriller ‘Pray for Rain’ offers oversimplified explanation for drought.
The California drought gets a pulpy dramatic treatment in the investigative thriller “Pray for Rain,” directed by Alex Ranarivelo and written by Christina Moore and Gloria Musca.
This family drama follows a young woman, Emma (Annabelle Stephenson), as she reluctantly returns to her small Central California hometown for her father’s funeral and uncovers a deadly conspiracy and shadowy figures controlling the water supply in a valley full of desperate farmers.
Making her living in New York as a fashion writer, Emma’s reportorial instincts take over after a series of violent gang threats.
She starts investigating the circumstances of her father’s death, leading to mysterious environmental groups, shady real estate deals and a lot of paid muscle intimidating farmers into selling their land cheaply.
Her strained relationship with her mother (Jane Seymour) nearly cracks under the pressure, as the complicated web reveals family secrets.
But when it all unravels, it’s more straightforward than meets the eye.
The drought is ultimately presented as a man-made occurrence, wrapped up in regulations and red tape, rather than a troubling environmental reality.
The reality is far more complicated than anything that can be neatly wrapped up within the conventions of genre filmmaking.
————- ‘Pray for Rain’ Rated: PG-13 for thematic elements and some violence.

Corps rolling out proposals for new drought management plan.
Releases would be slowed down earlier during severe droughts; Corps taking public input on proposal until mid-July Lake Hartwell users have until mid-July to look over possible changes to how the Corps of Engineers copes with drought conditions.
The changes in a draft proposal released this week by the Corps’ Savannah District office include reducing downstream releases during droughts.
“There will be more flow reductions, and we bring them earlier in the drought.” The actual release numbers recommended will apply to the Lake Thurmond dam.
The proposal calls for Thurmond releases to be 4,000 cubic feet per second during Level 1 drought conditions, 3,800 cfs during Level 2 conditions between February and October and 3,600 cfs from November to January.
Corps spokesman Billy Birdwell said the recommended option – known as Alternative 2 – “offers the most potential benefit and least negative impact … this one has the best balance.” The study states that none of the changes would upset local water supplies, economic conditions or the ecology of the 300-mile-long Savannah River Basin, which includes the three Corps lakes, the Keowee and Jocassee reservoirs operated by Duke Energy and the river south to the Port of Savannah.
Lake Hartwell sat at 653 feet above sea level Wednesday, some seven feet below full summer pool.
More: Foundation makes first round of grants to Pickens County schools "We’ve experienced a drastic turnaround in just two months’ time," said Pickens County naturalist Dennis Chastain, a member of the drought committee.
“We’ve had a number of questions about water management from the public, especially during drought,” Melissa Wolf, chief of the Natural Resources Section for the Savannah District, said in a news release.
Bailey said his staff would get together with The Nature Conservancy and state officials to review that input, then submit a final plan to the Corps’ regional office in Atlanta for approval later this year.

From the Department of Water Resources Sustainable Groundwater Management Program: 2017 Draft Proposal Solicitation for Groundwater Sustainability Plans and Projects The Department of Water Resources (DWR) is pleased at the turnout for its public meetings this week to review its 2017 Draft Proposal Solicitation Package for Groundwater Sustainability Plans and Projects and to receive public comments. Today’s meeting in Irvine will be the last prior to the close of the public comment period June 19, 2017. Meeting location Meeting time Irvine Ranch Water District 15600 Sand Canyon Avenue, Sand Canyon Room Irvine, CA 92618 June 14, 2017, 1:00 PM The Sustainable Groundwater Planning (SGWP) grant program is funded by Proposition 1, the $7.5 billion water bond overwhelmingly approved by California voters in 2014. Proposition 1 authorized the Legislature to appropriate $100 million for competitive grants for development of sustainable groundwater plans and projects, of which $86.3 million is available in fiscal year 2017-18. The grants are intended to support groundwater management that furthers the goals of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, a historic 2014 law that requires local agencies to bring stressed groundwater basins into sustainable patterns of pumping and recharge. Groundwater supplies a third or more of California’s water supply. DWR will solicit proposals to award funding on a competitive basis in two funding categories: projects that serve severely disadvantaged communities and Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs). GSPs have two tiers: Tier 1 is for critically overdrafted basins and Tier 2 is for all other high- and medium- priority basins. The draft materials are available on the SGWP Grant Program webpage. The public comment period will close June 19, 2017. Contact: Heather Shannon Heather.Shannon@water.ca.gov or (916) 651-9212 Facilitation Support Services DWR’s Facilitation Support Services (FSS) aim to help local agencies work through challenging water management situations. Professional facilitators are sometimes needed to help foster discussions among diverse water management interests and local agencies as they strive to implement the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). From April 2015 to June 2017, DWR’s FSS resources were primarily allocated to assist with Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) formation. After July 1, 2017, DWR will be focusing its available FSS resources on supporting the development of Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs). Under the requirements of SGMA, all beneficial uses and users of groundwater must be considered in the development of GSPs. The goal of the FSS is to assist local agencies in reaching consensus on potentially contentious topics arising from the diverse beneficial uses and users of groundwater and assisting governance under the newly formed governance structures in an effort to develop GSPs. Priorities of this funding are given to the critically overdrafted basins. Services Offered through DWR funded Professional Facilitators Stakeholder identification and engagement Meeting facilitation Interest-based negotiation/consensus building Public outreach facilitation Who is Eligible? GSAs developing…

The plan will save the equivalent of 35 percent of the Colorado River water used annually by Phoenix residents, according to the Associated Press.
The City of Phoenix also will fund a contribution of 13 billion gallons of Colorado River water to system conservation in Lake Mead this year.
Lake Havasu City officials say such a reduction could affect every community with a connection to the Colorado River.
According to Havasu water conservation specialist Briana Morgan, Phoenix’s reduction in water usage could affect every community in the Lower Colorado River.
“In the Lower Basin, it sets an example for every community to aim for a significant reduction.” Lake Havasu City has already instituted water conservation efforts, including water conservation education, rebates from the city’s water division for reduced usage and an expansion of Havasu’s effluent system to treat city parks and golf courses.
Nexsen believes Phoenix’s reductions will offset Lake Mead’s diminishing waterlines, and delay potential future drought declarations.
“I applaud Phoenix and the tribal communities for their efforts,” Nexsen said.
Last June, Lake Mead water levels dipped to 1,071.64 feet – its lowest water level in more than five years.
Statements by LVVWD officials indicate that it may take many years of above-average runoff in the Rocky Mountains before Lake Mead water levels return to pre-drought levels.
If Lake Mead’s water level fell below 1,075 feet during any given August, the states of California, Nevada and Arizona would be forced to reduce their usage under a 2010 tri-state agreement.

LINTON, N.D. — Rain has fallen in much of central North Dakota in the past week, but that wasn’t enough to keep the area in severe drought in the state from doubling.
The June 13 U.S. Drought Monitor, released on June 15, reports 27 percent of North Dakota is in severe drought, compared to 13.54 percent the week prior.
An additional 56.4 percent is considered to have moderate drought conditions, while the remainder of the state is abnormally dry.
South Dakota’s severe drought area increased to 13.14 percent from 11.37 percent the past week.
There also needs to be an improvement in the effects of the drought to consider pulling the area out of the severe drought designation, he says.
Some may not have gotten tall enough to harvest — Egeland says some small grains are shorter than 10 inches.
But pastures and row crops might recover now given the more than 2 inches that fell in the area in the past week, especially if more timely rains follow.
Egeland says pastures near the South Dakota border were brown.
The land can’t recover immediately from months of too little moisture, but people’s spirits were up right away, Egeland says.
A lot could change as the summer wears on.

Drought conditions worsen.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, 27 percent of the state is in severe drought, up from 13.5 percent last week.
Those severe conditions spread into most of Burleigh County this week, which previously had a moderate drought rating.
All of Morton County is in severe drought, as well as all of McLean, Mercer, Oliver, Grant Sioux, Emmons and McIntosh counties.
Fireworks have long been banned within the city limits of Bismarck without a public display permit, but, with the dry conditions, a number of others municipalities have added temporary bans of their own.
No fireworks of any kind, regardless of the fire danger rating, may be launched in Lincoln or in Burleigh or Morton counties.
Mandan will decide Friday whether or not to ban them.
Mandan’s public displays, such as the one at Mandan Rodeo Days, would not be affected by a ban.
Chances of rain through the weekend range from 20 to 40 percent in the southwest and south central portions of the state.
Chances of at least one-quarter inch of rain Saturday are as high as 80 percent in the northeast, according to the National Weather Service.

Tampa Bay’s drought eases after this week’s rain.
The June 13 Drought Monitor by the National Drought Mitigation Center in Lincoln, NE, showed that recent rainfall has virtually eliminated the drought over the Florida Panhandle and South Florida.
Central Florida and the Tampa Bay region remains under the abnormally dry and moderate drought category.
This improvement in the drought was expected.
“We have finally tapped into the deep, tropical moisture that has been hovering over the Caribbean over the last few months.
That combined with local sea breeze activity has lead to this wetter pattern.” said Storm Team 8 Meteorologist Ed Bloodsworth.
Drought conditions are expected to improve in the coming weeks and months as the Tampa Bay area moves in the wet season.
See your full forecast here.
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