Palm Beach County drought abates, but water order still in place.
A report released Thursday by the National Drought Mitigation Center shows 33 percent of Florida is in severe drought — mostly in central and western parts of the state — with another 24 percent in a moderate drought.
While 73 percent of Palm Beach County has no drought, that includes 23 percent still considered “abnormally dry.” An area in the far western part of the county was labeled in moderate-to-severe drought in Thursday’s report.
“The area impacted by Sunday’s rain was so small.” Related: Five things to know about La Niña In the 16-county region covered by the water management district, the seasonal rainfall since November has been just 50 percent of normal.
As of Thursday, coastal Palm Beach County had received 61 percent of its normal seasonal rainfall and is down 7.1 inches.
Western Palm Beach County is down 6.3 inches of rain and has received 47 percent of what’s normal.
While rainfall is a key element in the weekly drought report, the level of South Florida’s three water conservation areas and groundwater levels are also considered, said Geoff Shaughnessy, a meteorologist with the water management district.
Three wildfires totalling more than 100,000 acres burned on federally managed properties.
The so-called West Mims Fire may not be out until November, said Susan Granbery, a public information officer working on the fire with the Georgia Forestry Commission.
Since 1932, virtually all wet seasons have produced 2 to 4 feet of rain, according to the water management district.

Drought Watch: Warm, Dry Pattern Renews Drought Conditions.
MIDWAY, Fla. (WTXL) — The absence of soaking rain events since early spring has supported the return of moderate and severe drought classifications for many areas around and north of the Florida/Georgia state line.
The weekly update of the Drought Monitor from the National Drought Mitigation Center paints severe drought conditions growing in south Georgia between the Flint and Withlacoochee rivers.
The Severe category also covers the Okefenokee Swamp region, where the West Mims wildfire continues to rage.
The coastal areas of the Big Bend and parts of the middle Suwannee River valley remain void of drought classification.
Excessive rainfall from a few weeks ago created a surplus of soil moisture, but in the recent dry trend, that surplus has been reduced.
All local drought categories are described as "short-term" drought, meaning long-range conditions suggest additional rain activity which can cut down in the intensity and longevity of drought conditions.
Warmer-than-average temperatures, though, may maintain current dryness conditions and keep the drought threats in place.

The drought is mostly gone and so are most – but not all – restrictions on water usage.
As the official drought designation in most of the state improved this month to “abnormally dry,” Concord, which uses Penacook Lake for drinking water with the Contoocook River as a backup, has decided to stop urging people to conserve water as of Friday.
It takes weeks or months for moisture from the snowy winter and wet spring to percolate underground.
“We’re pretty much at normal levels,” said Matt Gage, director of Pembroke Water Works, about the five gravel-packed wells used by its system.
This is not unusual for New England, she said.
“People have looked through studies and tried to find correlations between a certain phase and certain weather pattern, but we tend not to find strong relationships with any one thing,” she said.
Notably, we can’t predict our weather future just from El Nino, the pattern of water temperatures in the southern Pacific Ocean that was associated with last year’s drought.
“I caution people not to make a seasonal outlook based on one pattern,” she said.
The long-running drought caused some debate because state law allows towns and cities to forbid homes from doing outdoor watering but gives them no authority over businesses.
A new law that allows local government to stop businesses from watering lawns was likely to be approved Thursday by the state Senate and sent to the governor’s desk for signing.

Texas Panhandle-South Plains finally drought free.
The final counties to emerge from drought were Hartley, Lipscomb and Hemphill counties.
That’s in addition to areas of deficient moisture around El Paso, in northeast Texas and at the very southern tip of Texas at Brownsville.
Currently just 9.42 percent of Texas is experiencing below normal moisture conditions, including 1.34 percent suffering moderate drought.
That’s an improvement of 9.7 percent and 1.54 percent, respectively, a week ago and 13.1 and 2.3 percent a year ago.
Thanks to rainfall statewide, the Texas Water Development Board reports that reservoir conditions in Texas remain above normal for this time of year.
Lake Meredith on Thursday was at 24.5 percent capacity, up from 24.4 percent a week ago and 23.7 percent both a month and six months ago.
The reservoir between Tulia and Silverton was at 14.6 percent a month ago and 15.2 percent six months ago.
Area totals include: Floydada, 0.40; Hart, 0.25; Plainview Water Treatment Plant, 0.70; Plainview Herald, 0.46; Silverton, 0.38; Tulia, 0.27; and Turkey, 0.12 inch.
In Plainview, the Saturday night low is expected to be 34 degrees with a light frost or freeze possible to the north and west.

Officials: Texas Panhandle drought could get worse.
A swath of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas has been in a drought or near-drought condition for six months, putting some of the winter wheat crop in doubt.
The March fires burned nearly 2,100 square miles in the four states.
Agriculture officials say the fires also killed more than 20,000 cattle and pigs and damaged or destroyed about $55 million worth of fences.
April rains on parts of the high plains have eased the drought and helped the grassland recover, but it could be weeks or longer before cattle can be turned out to graze, leaving some ranchers a choice of buying costler feed or culling their herds.
Crops and grassland across the high plains thrived last year after a far worse drought from about 2010 to 2015.
Stanley Barby, a lifelong rancher in the Oklahoma Panhandle, said he had been adding to his herd slowly to protect the recuperating grassland.
“We were trying to let that grass recover from the drought and so we didn’t overgraze,” he said.
He lost nearly 50 cattle, three houses and more than 150 miles (240 kilometers) of fence.
Barby, Clawson and other farmers and ranchers said they were overwhelmed by a flood of donations from farmers, ranchers and others who offered feed, fencing materials and cash.

Poof!
Abundant winter and spring rains have decimated large regions of drought that afflicted the nation.
In October, the start of the water year, drought covered 84 percent of the Golden State.
Storm after storm crashed into the West Coast off the Pacific Ocean during the winter and spring months, unloading copious amounts of low elevation rain and high elevation snow.
Recall that in the fall, severe drought afflicted portions of Alabama, Georgia, the western Carolinas and Tennessee, intensifying wildfires that erupted in the region.
Only patchy areas of drought now remain in the Lower 48, most notably in Florida, Georgia and Alabama, an area from central Virginia to central Maryland, including the District, and extreme southwest Arizona and Southern California.
But the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center forecasts “likely removal” of the drought in Florida in the summer because of frequent sea breeze thunderstorms that tend to form in the afternoon.
This area may become prone to wildfires as the summer wears on — much like it was last year.
While drought is all but gone in most other parts of the United States, unusually wet conditions have replaced it.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Extremes Index, which expresses the percentage of the nation dealing with abnormal weather, ranks highest in recorded history (for the period spanning January to March).

Some counties in Maine – the southern tip of York County, most of Hancock County and parks of Washington, Penobscot and Waldo counties – are still abnormally dry, a step below the least severe category of drought.
The latest data is a dramatic change from last year.
Summer rainfall was far below normal.
Drought conditions first appeared in Maine last June and by the beginning of July parts of York County were in severe drought, the third most-serious condition.
At the end of September, roughly 10 percent of the state reached extreme drought, the second-most-severe federal classification.
By the middle of October, almost 70 percent of Maine was experiencing some drought conditions, including large parts of northern and eastern Maine that previously were not affected.
The conditions prompted the U.S. Department of Agriculture to declare a disaster area that eventually included five Maine counties – Cumberland, Androscoggin, Oxford, Sagadahoc and York.
Farmers in that area were eligible for emergency loans and other assistance from the federal Farm Service Agency.
A small sliver of York County was still designated as a drought zone through last week.
This story will be updated.

Drought in the U.S. fell to a record low this week, with just 6.1% of the lower 48 states currently experiencing abnormally dry conditions, federal officials announced Thursday.
That’s the lowest percentage in the 17-year history of the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor report.
"Drought has certainly been disappearing at a rapid rate this spring," said meteorologist Brad Rippey of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The five-year drought in California is practically over, with only about 8% of the state currently in drought.
The strong El Niño of 2015-16 may have caused the initial decrease last year, he said.
"El Niño is historically a ‘drought-breaker,’ while La Niña is a ‘drought-maker.’
" A persistent low-pressure area sitting along the west coast of North America this year helped fuel the ongoing wet weather, USDA meteorologist Eric Luebehusen said.
Low pressure causes air to rise, which allows clouds and precipitation to form.
Those storms and wet weather then typically meander east-northeast across the central U.S., he said.
Prior to the weekly Drought Monitor, the monthly Palmer Drought Severity Index was the primary method for measuring drought in the U.S., according to Rippey.

Drought, fire danger, expands across the area.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla.- A large swath of SE Georgia extending into northern Nassau County (Florida) is now in a severe drought, according to the U.S. Drought monitor.
Several months of below average rainfall mean an area stretching from Brunswick west to Waycross and south to the Florida line is in the severe drought category.
The entire First Coast News viewing area is under either drought conditions or abnormally dry.
JUST IN: Moderate drought expands into portions of St. Johns, Flagler, Putnam and Alachua counties.
Severe drought across SE GA expands NW.
pic.twitter.com/AoHQMm7JMT — Lauren Rautenkranz (@WeatherLauren) April 27, 2017 Part of the area that is burning in the 60,000+ acre West Mims fire in Clinch County is part of the severe drought.
The Florida Forest Service is also saying that St. Johns, Flagler, and Volusia counties are under a "Very High" fire danger Thursday due to gusty winds.
VERY HIGH FIRE DANGER in St. Johns, Flagler, and Volusia Counties today with gusty winds this afternoon.
pic.twitter.com/FjIcJoJgNE — FFS Bunnell (@FFS_Bunnell) April 27, 2017 First Coast News meteorologist Lauren Rautenkranz says we are in for a very hot and dry pattern through the weekend, which means fire danger and the drought will likely get worse before it gets better.

In science news this week: Follow the flow: The state of the San Lorenzo River; Ancient groundwater may not be as clean as once thought; Research suggests climate change likely to cause significant shift in Colorado River vegetation; Mystery of the missing mercury at the Great Salt Lake; Rising water temperatures endanger health of coastal ecosystems, study finds; and Trillions of plastic bits, swept up by the current, are littering arctic waters Follow the flow: The state of the San Lorenzo River: “Flow has long shaped the relationship between Santa Cruz, California, and the San Lorenzo River, which runs through the city. The memorable “Christmas Flood” of 1955 sent 10 feet of water surging through downtown Santa Cruz, and prompted the construction of flood control levees that channelized the river. A spate of heavy winter storms earlier this year put San Lorenzo River flow back on people’s minds, with February flows hitting levels nearly 30 times greater than the long-term average. Fittingly, flow was also the focus of this year’s State of the San Lorenzo River symposium, which FISHBIO’s Santa Cruz staff attended earlier this year. The series of talks highlighted where the San Lorenzo River’s water comes from, the influences of flow on fish, and challenges in the watershed. … ” Read more from FishBio here: Follow the flow: The state of the San Lorenzo River Ancient groundwater may not be as clean as once thought: “Most of the groundwater that is accessible by deep wells is old, but still vulnerable to modern contamination, reports a study published today in Nature Geoscience by researchers from University of Calgary, Stanford, and other institutions. The world’s groundwater provides drinking water and irrigation for billions of people around the world. Some of this groundwater is young and easily affected by pollution and changes in climate. But much more is old groundwater that has been stored beneath the Earth’s surface for thousands of years. Old groundwater is more difficult to…