Tallahassee got some rain this week. It was welcome, and we need a lot more to quench the drought.
Conditions are so dry that burn bans and water restrictions are in effect to various degrees around Florida.
The Big Bend is experiencing the worst level of drought, a level 4 according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
The drought is the topic of this week’s Speaking Of.
Ironically, when I asked Ryan Bass about this, his Moccasin Grove farm was getting a shower.
“This is the first one in a while, and it's actually on some very good looking strawberries this morning,” Bass said. “I have a u-pick that starts in about 20 minutes.”
Bass and his wife established the business five years ago between Tallahassee and Monticello off Moccasin Gap Rd. at 9214 Herold Hill Rd.
Bass has a deep well to take care of watering his crops. He says his farm business is okay right now, but he understands this drought is a problem for others.
“A lot of people, they need this rain and they need the grass to grow to have their animals graze pasture and stuff like that,” Bass says. “So a lot of people are praying for rain and hoping that we can get a lot just to kind of get us back up to…average.”
We are in a significant rainfall deficit, and it will take a lot of rain to change that. Even worse, when the ground is extremely dry, it may not be able absorb water efficiently.
The National Drought Mitigation Center says if the dry weather persists long enough, water reservoirs and wells can run dry, potentially leading to water emergencies.
“Since January 1, we're in the hole between seven and eight inches of rainfall. But that's not the whole story,” says Meteorologist Andrew Wulfeck from the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network. “Last year we finished about 13 inches in the hole. So if you add those up, we're about 20 inches in the hole (in Tallahassee), and that is a lot of rainfall to be down.”
Forecasters see more dry months ahead. Hurricane season starts June 1st, and it may weirdly be our best option for relief.
“The only way I think we're going to be able to make up that deficit is if we have a slow moving tropical cyclone,” Wulfeck says. “Just a tropical depression, maybe a tropical storm, but slow moving is the key. And if that were to go across the area, we could easily get rid of these deficits.”
A range of impacts can result from a drought, like ponds drying up and sinkholes opening up.
“If you have like a private well, those dry up first during this type of drought, and then the concern grows to aquifer,” Wulfeck says. “As the water depletes underneath us, it opens up these new holes. So sinkholes start popping up. That's relatively common when we have extremes, when we have the wet extremes and when we have the dry extremes.”
WFSU Ecology Blog and Coast to Canopy podcast Rob Diaz de Villegas recently visited Lake Elberta to see a pair of new sinkholes that have residents concerned.
We talk much more about all of this on Speaking Of. Click LISTEN above to hear the full discussion.
