Fifty five percent of Florida is under severe drought conditions
DORAL, FL – According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, currently 55 percent of Florida is under severe drought conditions while 88 percent experiences abnormal dry conditions.
This means, reports Fox Weather, almost all cities across the state are lacking rainfalls with Orlando seeing only 1.89″ of rain since the start of the year and Naples reporting less than an inch.
About this, the National Interagency Fire Center has said the continuing drought, which has the tendency to worsens, will trigger wildfires.
“The Florida Peninsula will continue with a forecast of above normal significant fire potential through at least May, due to worsening drought, above normal temperatures, and forecast below normal rainfall. The early green-up has accelerated the depletion of water left behind from 2022’s hurricanes, with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Short-term Prediction Research and Transition Center (SPoRT) data indicating that soil moisture is below the 10th percentile over a good part of the central and southern peninsula,” the NIFC wrote in its latest outlook.
But wildfires are already damaging the region, since according to the Florida Forest Service, more than 5,200 acres are torched.
Other consequences related with this have to do with crop losses, water shortages, changes in animal behavior like birds, allergies, among others, that Florida is already experiencing due to a climate crisis that registered high temperatures since the beginning of the year with February reporting record temperatures close to 85ºF in some areas of Miami-Dade and Broward.
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